Honor of A Kitsune
by Lilith Darkholme
Summary: Join Naruto as he strives to surpass the Hokage with his new team. However his new team is a bit rocky as they seem to be more about themselves than an actual team can Naruto get them to work as a team and survive or will he fail. Strong Smart Naruto. Fem Naruto. Read and Review rated for safety.
1. Chapter 1

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune**

Chapter 01

Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage, Shinobi no Kami was sitting behind his desk smoking his pipe whilst battling the true nemesis of all Kage past, present, and future; paperwork. However today's paperwork was different than his usual paperwork today he was finalizing the teams for the graduating class of the Ninja Academy which was a breath of fresh air to the old man. Hiruzen knew most of the kids from the graduating class as they were mostly clan heirs as well as his surrogate grandson Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto was good kid though he was disliked by the village because he was also the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Naruto tried to keep a happy go lucky demeanor but Hiruzen knew that all the hate and negative treatment of the boy had its toll. However it wasn't all bad Naruto had made some friends in his class consisting of Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji, and Nara Shikamaru though Ino was his closest friend.

Naruto also had another friend in his sensei Umino Iruka as well as his other more secretive sensei Mitarashi Anko. Anko had met Naruto when he was younger and she was able to relate to him due to how she herself was treated because of her former sensei Orochimaru. Anko had taken Naruto under her wing and began to train him beyond what the academy was teaching him.

Hiruzen turned in his seat to face the Hokage Monument and looked at the fourth head on the monument. "You would be proud of how he is turning out Minato."

There was no answer of course as Minato had been dead for fourteen years ever since the day of the Kyuubi attack. Minato had given his life to save the village and seal the kyuubi into Naruto who had just been born. Minato chose Naruto because Naruto was Minato's own son and he believed Naruto would be seen as a hero, oh how wrong Minato was.

Hiruzen was pulled out of his thoughts by a knock on the door.

"Enter." Hiruzen called.

The door opened to reveal Mitarashi Anko who had been summoned by Hiruzen.

"What can I do for you old man." Anko asked.

Hiruzen smiled he liked when people were informal with him. "Hello Anko-chan yes I want your assessment of Naruto's skills I know you've been training him and I know for a fact you didn't train him as an academy student."

"Well you got that right the academy only teaches him history and basic ninja skills I trained him as if he were a genin. But you didn't ask how trained him you asked for my assessment of his skills, well he has good taijutsu, his Ninjutsu is pretty good though his bunshin needs work but he has so much chakra he'll never be able to properly use the bunshin so I taught him the Kage Bunshin, he has no skill for genjutsu but that's an unfortunate side effect of his tenant but he can identify and break genjutsu, he is perfect for infiltration and assassination which I helped perfect." Anko explained her assessment of Naruto's skills.

"Good he will be a big help on his team if how you trained him is true then he was holding back in the academy and I can put him on a team and not have to worry about him not getting trained properly. I assume you plan to keep training despite him being on a team?" Hiruzen asked

"Naturally he can be the best assassin in Konoha and I plan to ensure that he is. The kid has the perfect mindset for infiltration I mean all his pranks could have been way worse if he were an enemy shinobi. I mean he snuck into all the clan's compounds and pranked them had he wanted to he could have killed people." Anko explained.

"Indeed." Hiruzen agreed he knew about all of Naruto's pranks as he had heard about each one from the people Naruto had pranked.

"So who's team are you putting Naruto on?" Anko asked.

"Kakashi's." Hiruzen replied.

"Is that really wise i mean Kakashi is a good ninja and all and well respected as well as a former Anbu, but is he the best person to trust with a team?" Anko asked.

"While it's true that he has never passed a team I do think he will make a good jonin sensei. He might even actually pass a team this year. I have a good feeling about his team this year providing they can work together." Hiruzen explained.

"Who all is on the team?" Anko asked.

Hiruzen smirked taking a drag of his pipe.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Uzumaki Naruto was sitting in his seat, wearing a black form fitting bodysuit with a burnt orange jacket with the sleeves pushed up showing the sleeves of the body suit and he was wearing ninja shoes rather than sandals. Beside him sat Yamanaka Ino his best friend the two were talking discussing who they wanted on their teams they hoped to be on a team together but they both seriously doubted it. As they were talking Iruka walked in with a clipboard in his hand and called everyone to attention.

"Alright everyone this may very well be the last time we see each other in this classroom I want you all to remember what you've learned. Now please listen for your Name to see what team you're on." Iruka said "Team one will be…"

Naruto was listening for his name and team hoping he would get a team he could work with.

"... Team Seven will be Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka said.

"Yes true love prevails." a girl with pink hair yelled.

"Fuck me." Naruto mumbled as his head his the surface on his desk.

"Alright settle down." Iruka said before continuing the list. "Team Eight will be Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. Team Nine is still in rotation from last year. Lastly Team Ten will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji. You are all dismissed for lunch be back at one to meet your jonin sensei."

Naruto rose from his seat and left the academy he had roughly an hour and a half before he had to be back to meet his new sensei. Naruto was also thinking of how to work with his team he knew that Sakura was a fangirl who ignored her training only doing what the academy made her do, and he also knew that Sasuke was a loner and had some kind of superiority complex. Naruto knew he had to work with them for the foreseeable future which meant he had to find common ground with his teammates. However, he didn't know how to get Sakura to quit being a fangirl.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Meanwhile while the students were at lunch the jonin sensei were in the Hokage's office in a meeting with the Hokage. The meeting was to determine which jonin would teach which team so far they had gone through six of the nine teams with only three left.

"Kakashi you will be in charge of Team Seven this was decided by myself with the backing of the Council. The reason for this is because you are the only person who can teach Sasuke how to use the Sharingan should he awaken it." Hiruzen spoke clearly.

"Hai Hokage-sama." Kakashi said.

Kakashi was a tall man with silver gravity defying hair wearing the standard konoha infantry uniform with a face mask concealing the lower half of his face and his hitai-ate cocked to one side covering his left eye.

"Kurenai you will have Team Eight. They are primarily a tracking team with two taijutsu users." Hiruzen said.

"Hai Hokage-sama." Kurenai replied

Kurenai was a shorter woman with untamed black hair and red eyes.

"Asuma you will be in charge of Team Ten this generation's Ino-Shika-Cho trio." the Hokage told his son.

"Hai Tou-san." Asuma replied.

Sarutobi Asuma was another tall man with spiky balck hair and a beard wearing the standard shinobi uniform.

"You all have your teams now head out it's almost time for the students to return from lunch, and Kakashi i wouldn't make your team wait too long." Hiruzen said to the Jonin Sensei.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Three hours, three fucking hours that's how long Team Seven had been waiting to meet their new Jonin Sensei. Naruto was annoyed by this stunt and caused him to lose respect for his new sensei who ever it may be. Naruto took out some ninja wire and a blunted kunai and moved over to the door to set up a simple trap as a prank for the next person to walk through the door.

"Naruto what are you doing?" Sakura asked.

Sakura was a girl with pink hair wearing a short red dress with black shorts.

"I'm setting a trap for our sensei." Naruto replied.

Naruto was a teenage boy with golden blonde wearing a form fitting black bodysuit a burnt orange jacket white socks and black ninja shoes.

"That's not going to work." Sakura said condescendingly.

Just as Sakura spoke the door opened setting off the trap causing the person who opened the door to pull out kunai of their own and deflect the blunted one.

"Hm how do I say this? My First impression of you all is, you're a bunch of idiots." the man said. "Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

Five minutes later the members of Team Seven were on the roof and sitting on a bench before the man they assumed was their new sensei.

"Alright first we're going to do some introductions." the man said.

"What do you want us to say?" Sakura asked.

"Your name, likes and dislikes, dreams for the future, and hobbies." the man said. " Here I'll go first. My name is Hatake Kakashi, I don't feel like telling you my likes and dislikes, as for my dreams for the future never really thought about it, and for hobbies I have lots of hobbies."

Sakura looked to her teammates though only Naruto looked back at her. "All we learned was his name." she said.

"Pinkie you're first."

"My name is Haruno Sakura. As for my likes..." She looks to Sasuke. "My Hobbies are…" Another look to Sasuke. " And my dreams for the future…" Another look to Sasuke with a squeal added this time.

'_Girls her age are probably more interested in love than being a ninja.'_ Kakashi thought. "Anything you dislike?"

"Ino-buta and Naruto." Sakura replied to her sensei's question.

'_Fuck me if she keeps up this fangirl fantasy either me or Sasuke will get killed trying to save her and it will most likely be me.' _ Naruto thought.

"Blondie you're next." Kakashi said pulling Naruto from his thoughts.

"Right my name is Uzumaki Naruto I like ramen especially from Ichiraku's, Iruka-sensei, and Hokage-jiji. I dislike rapists, those who judge others without getting to know them, and the three minutes it takes to cook instant ramen. As for my hobbies well I like gardening, training, and hanging out with my friends. As for my dream for the future I wish to surpass the Hokage especially the Fourth Hokage he was the greatest Hokage." Naruto said as he introduced himself.

'_That was a lot more detailed than I was expecting.'_ Kakashi thought. "Alright Broody you're last."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I dislike a great many things and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream for I will make it a reality, I will restore my clan and kill a certain person." Sasuke said.

'_Sasuke-kun is so cool." _Sakura thought to herself.

'_I thought as much seems he is still resents Itachi for killing their clan.'_ Kakashi thought.

'_I'm screwed. I thought being with Sakura was bad enough but add the Teme's attitude and this team is doomed.'_ Naruto thought to himself.

"Alright tomorrow we have our first exercise it will be a survival exercise." Kakashi told his team.

"We did plenty of survival exercises in the academy why do we need to do another one?" Sakura asked.

"Well I need to see what you know for myself. I can read a report all day long but until I see it for myself that report does me nothing. Besides your opponent for this exercise is me." Kakashi explained to his team. "Meet at training ground seven at six in the morning, and I would advise against eating breakfast as you'll only throw it back up."

With that said Kakashi left in a swirl of leaves leaving his team behind.

Naruto got up to leave but as he was walking away, he turned to look at his new teammates. "If I were you I'd still eat breakfast even if we puke it's still fuel for our bodies."

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

The next morning three silhouettes could be seen walking toward training ground seven two were groggy barely awake while one looked full of energy and completely awake.

"Ohayō." Saakura said tiredly.

"Ohayō Sakura, Teme." Naruto said to his two teammates.

"Don't call Sasuke-kun that." Sakura said angrily yet still tired.

"You two didn't eat breakfast did you?" Naruto asked.

"Kakashi-sensei told us not to." Sakura replied.

"No, he advised us not to he didn't flat out tell us not to eat." Naruto corrected his female teammate.

"Whatever Baka." Sakura said as she walked over to Sasuke. "Ohayō Sasuke-kun."

"Hn." was all the brooding Uchiha said to the pinkette.

Sakura slumped her shoulders a bit as Naruto let out a scoff that went unnoticed by both Sakura and Sasuke.

After a short while the members of team seven were beginning to wonder where their wayward sensei was. When it was apparent that he would be late Sakura sat down and fell asleep as did Sasuke leaving only Naruto still awake. Naruto sighed and walked to a training dummy and began a mock spar with it to pass the time and keep his skills sharp, granted an actual sparring partner would be better but his only two choices were fast asleep.

Three hours later Hatake Kakashi walked into the clearing after Sasuke and Sakura had woken back up.

"YOU'RE LATE." Sakura yelled.

"Sorry I crossed paths with a black cat so i have to take the long way around Konoha to get here." Kakashi said.

Naruto actually stopped his spar and blinked at his sensei. "Really that's the best you got?"

"THAT'S A LIE AND YOU KNOW IT." Sakura yelled talking over Naruto.

"Maa Maa I'm here now thats all that matters." Kakashi said. "Alright now that everyone is here it's time for your exercise. Your task is to get these two bells off me before noon, the one who fails to get a bell gets sent back to the academy."

"WHAT THAT'S RIDICULOUS IF THAT'S THE CASE WHAT WAS THE GENIN EXAM FOR?" Sakura yelled.

"To weed out those who didn't have what it takes to be shinobi." Kakashi replied. "This is your true test this is what decides if you remain genin. This test is also a chance to showcase what you know so that your sensei can get a better understanding of your skills."

Sakura paled slightly she didn't know what skills she actually possessed sure she was smart and knew everything the books taught her, but as far as actual skills she didn't know what to do.

Naruto on the other hand knew he had the skills to show off and was confident in his abilities so long as he had a team to back him up.

Sasuke was also confident in his skills he had been training relentlessly to get stronger so that he could kill his brother. However he wasn't exactly known for working with a group as he felt he didn't need anyone to achieve his goals.

Kakashi saw the different reactions to his test and smirked under his mask he wondered how many would understand what he was truly testing them on while also displaying their different skill sets.

"Well if everyone is ready be sure to come at me with the intent to kill me otherwise you will never get a bell." Kakashi told his new charges. "Your test starts now."

When Kakashi finished speaking the three genin hopefuls all vanished into the tree line leaving Kakashi alone in the clearing.

"Well they understand how to hide." Kakashi said to himself.

Kakashi looked around the clearing he saw Sakura almost immediately thanks to her pink hair. He then saw Sasuke in a bush and took note of his location. Kakashi then tried to look for Naruto only to realize he couldn't see any sign of the young blonde.

"Well that makes things interesting Naruto seems to be the best at hiding." Kakashi noted.

Naruto moved silently appearing behind Sasuke.

"We need to team up we can't beat a Jonin on our own even if he holds back he has a lot more experience than all of us combined." Naruto told Sasuke.

"Leave me alone Dobe I don't need your help." Sasuke replied.

"We don't have time to argue Teme none of us can beat him on our own." Naruto said firmly.

"Watch me Dobe." Sasuke said as he charged out from his hiding spot drawing a kunai.

Kakashi saw Sasuke coming with a kunai drawn and pulled out a kunai of his own to block the incoming attack. As Sasuke slashed at Kakashi the older man blocked the kunai with his own then used his hand to block an incoming kick that Sasuke had attempted. Sasuke used the chance to reach for a bell but was only able to touch a bell before he was thrown away from Kakashi.

Sasuke twisted while in the air and landed on his feet then began to run through hand signs which alerted Kakashi.

Kakashi saw Sasuke running through hand signs and recognized the signs, ' _What genin are supposed to be able to use elemental chakra.'_

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out as he unleashed a fireball from his mouth heading for Kakashi.

Kakashi cursed in his mind and used a doton jutsu to vanish underground.

When the fire died down Sasuke looked for Kakashi but the jonin was nowhere to be found. Sasuke looked all around him but he couldn't find Kakashi anywhere.

"Where did he go?" Sasuke asked out loud.

"If I'm not around or above you try below." Kakashi said as his hands burst from underground and pulls Sasuke down until he was neck deep in the ground.

Naruto had watched the whole fight and face palmed when Sasuke was defeated. Sakura on the other rushed out of her hiding spot throwing three shuriken at Kakashi the only thing on her mind was saving Sasuke. Kakashi made a single hand sign and cast a genjutsu on Sakura. Sakura's glazed over as the jutsu took hold causing Naruto to face palm again.

"I swear my teammates who were supposed to be the best in our class were defeated so easily." Naruto muttered to himself.

"That's two down now I have to find Naruto." Kakashi said looking around the clearing for any sign of the young blonde.

Naruto remained in his hiding spot for a bit thinking he then withdrew deeper into the woods further out of sight. Naruto then created two shadow clones a gift from sensei Mitarashi Anko who had taught him the jutsu when it was clear he'd never be able to perform the basic clone jutsu for having too much chakra.

"Alright you two use the henge and turn into thugs." Naruto ordered his clones.

Once the clones had turned into thugs Naruto used the henge himself and turned into a woman with black hair done up into three long braids wearing a loose fitting kimono with a fox plushie tied to her belt.

"Alright now I'm going to run I want you two to chase me and act like I'm your target for a mugging." Naruto said her voice much softer and sultry in this form.

The two thugs gave a mock salute to their create and got into character. Naruto began to run with a panicked look on her face as her two clones began their chase.

Back with Kakashi the seasoned jonin was still in the clearing having tied up Sakura to make sure she wasn't going anywhere when she woke up. Sasuke was still neck deep in the ground so he wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

Just then a woman with black hair done up in three braids broke through the treeline and rushed over to Kakashi shortly there after two thugs came into view as the woman reached Kakashi.

"Please help me shinobi-san these men are trying to hurt me." the woman said crying into Kakashi's chest..

Kakashi was surprised but his instincts were telling him to protect this woman. "It's alright Miss get behind me and I'll take care of them." Kakashi said as he ushered the woman past him right past the bells on his belt which the woman stole deftly.

"Stand aside all we want is the woman." one thug said firmly.

"Not an option." Kakashi said as he drew a kunai.

The two thugs drew their swords ready to fight. The woman still behind Kakashi moved over to untie Sakura and began to dig out Sasuke.

"Who are you and why are you helping me?" Sasuke asked the woman.

"Because a good teammate helps out their team." the woman said.

"I don't need your help Dobe." Sasuke said realizing the woman was Naruto.

"I think you do seeing as you are the one burried." Naruto told her teammate.

Kakashi made quick work of the clones and realized something was wrong he turned to see the woman he was protecting and saw she was digging out Sasuke.

"So you tricked me so you could get to your teammates huh Naruto?" Kakashi asked the woman.

"Not just my team Kakashi -sensei but also the bells." Naruto said as she held up the bells.

Kaklashi looked to his belt to find the bells were indeed gone. "Well played Naruto. So who gets the bells?" Kakashi asked.

"Well it would be selfish of me to keep them for myself, especially when you're testing us on our ability to work as a team." Naruto said cancelling his henge.

"So you figured it out good at least one of you did. Well since Naruto understood the test and helped both of you, I only have one this to say. Congratulations you thee pass the test we are officially Team Seven." Kakashi said.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** To the person who left a review as a guest. Yes Hashirama was a very good hokage I am not disputing that. However Naruto believed that Minato was greatest for his actions that is why I said the Minato was the best in the story because Naruto believes him to be the best.

On a side note can people please review signed in so I can reply directly to you in PMs instead of in my chapters.

* * *

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune**

Chapter 02

Naruto was walking the streets of Konoha minding his own business. His team had been together for a couple months now they had mostly spent their time training and doing chores for other people in so called missions. The missions had turned out ok he guessed there were only a few hiccups like the time they were asked to help a farmer on his farm the farmer had refused to let Naruto on his fields cursing him saying he refused to let the demon on his fields. Then there was the time they had to walk dogs for the Inuzuka clan Sasuke said the task was beneath him, Naruto had scoffed at that but said nothing at the time letting the team's sensei deal with it.

Today though Kakashi had told them to meet at the Mission Hall rather than the usual training ground they trained in. This meant they were doing missions first and then training which wasn't rare but it just meant that Kakashi was trying to get them to work as a team. Naruto knew that teamwork was important but so was individual skills Naruto knew that if the three genin worked as a team they could do more but both Sakura and Sasuke would rather work against him than with him.

Naruto questioned why he had been put on this team but only to himself as he trusted the Hokage's judgement surely the old man knew what he was doing with this team. Naruto was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the voice of his sensei.

"Ah Naruto you're a bit early." Kakashi pointed out.

"Am I?" Naruto asked and he looked at his watch hat was on his wrist.

Naruto was wearing his usual black form fitting bodysuit, a burnt orange jacket, his hitai-ate on a black cloth acting like a sash, shin guards, and black ninja shoes.

"You are I said to meet at nine it's only eight thirty." Kakashi replied to his student.

"So it is. Guess I'll use the time I have to talk to Hokage-jiji." Naruto said and walked into the building before them.

The Mission Hall was on the ground floor of the Hokage Tower while the Hokage's Office was on the top floor. Naruto climbed the stairs until he reached the top floor and knocked on the door, Hearing an enter he opened the door and walked in.

"Hey Jiji." Naruto said to the old man behind a large wooden desk.

"Ah Naruto how are you I take it you got here early for team meeting." the Hokage said to his surrogate grandson.

"Yea by about a half hour." Naruto said replying to his grandfather figure.

"What can I do for you Naruto?" Hiruzen asked the young blonde.

"Well, to be honest, I would like to know why you placed me on Team Seven." Naruto said honestly.

"There are a few reasons why I chose you for Team Seven Naruto. First you are more advanced than your teammates thanks to your training under Anko who told me that she would keep training you which according to her reports she has kept her word. Secondly, you are a very loyal person something I wish for you to bestow upon your teammates. Thirdly, it's the same team that your father was on when he was a genin. And lastly was because you hate fangirls and know plenty of respectable Kunoichi to be able to hopefully break Sakura out of her fangirl state." Hirzuen explained to Naruto.

"You do realize I'm a boy and Sakura hates my guts right?" Naruto pointed out to his beloved grandfather.

"I am aware of that, I did say I hoped it would happen it will take hard work for you to change both your teammates Naruto. Sakura is a fangirl with an obsession on Sasuke while Sasuke has his own set of issues about this obsession of killing Itachi." Hiruzen said. "Naruto I chose you because you are strong and never give up, I know you can change them."

"I'll do my best Jiji but I can't make any promises on my success." Naruto replied to the aging Kage.

"That's all I ask Naruto." Hiruzen said with a smile on his face. "Now I believe it's time for us to go down to the Mission Hall as it's time to meet your team."

"Ok Jiji." Naruto said standing up from his seat.

Naruto walked to the door and opened it as Hiruzen walked up behind him and the duo walked down to the Mission Hall. As the two entered they saw the remnants of Team Seven enter.

"Baka why are you pestering the Hokage he had more important things to deal with." Sakura yelled at Naruto.

"Sakura I don't suppose you know the title I use when talking to the Hokage is do you?" Naruto asked

"Anything other than Hokage-sama is disrespectful." Sakura yelled

"Sakura I use the title of Jiji and not once has Hokage-jiji ever corrected me on it because of the bond we share." Naruto explained.

"Baka quit disrespecting the Hokage." Sakura yelled.

"Sakkura you really shouldn't yell at Naruto. If the Hokage has never told Naruto not to call him Jiji then who are we to challenge him. Naruto and the Hokage have a family like bond so it's best if we don't question it." Kakashi explained to his female student. "Now I believe it is time to get our Missions for the day."

Naruto walked over to join his team ready for whatever missions they were given.

"Alright Team Seven we have a fresh batch of missions for you to take on…" the Hokage began to say before he was cut off.

"Those chores you call missions are beneath me as an Uchiha i demand a mission befitting my status."

"You are a genin of Konohagakure no Sato your clan status has no influence on what missions you get." Iruka said correcting his former student.

'_I knew this would happen sooner or later though I honestly expected it to be from Naruto.'_ Kakashi thought to himself.

'_Saw that coming.'_ Naruto thought to himself at Sasuke's outburst.

"It seems you need to be told how the rankings work. Each day we get numerous requests from the villagers and other influential parties. We put each request into a rank depending on the nature of the request the ranks are D, C, B, and A. Genin such as yourselves are permitted D rank missions and if skilled enough C ranks Rookies like yourselves however are only permitted D rank missions." Hiruzen explained to the Uchiha.

"How will you know if we are skilled if you never give us a chance to prove ourselves." Sasuke said angrily.

The Hokage sighed and looked to Naruto then Kakashi "Kakashi do you think your team is ready for a C rank mission?"

' _I know Naruto is but I'm not sure if Sasuke and Sakura are sure Sasuke has some skills and is better fit than Sakura but his mentality is lacking. Maybe a c rank will show them that this isn't just fun and games.'_ Kakashi thought to himself with a sigh. "I think they can handle something simple like an escort mission."

"An escort you say? Yes I believe I have an escort that is simple enough for your team. Iruka please go get the client." Hiruzen ordered the older Chunin.

Iruka got up from his seat and left the room for a moment then re-entered with a shorter man behind him.

"This is Tazuna a bridge builder from Nami no Kuni. He has requested an escort team to guide him back to Nami and protect him from thugs and bandits." Hiruzen explained.

"This is my escort a bunch of brats they don't even look like Ninja." Tazuna said.

Naruto got a tick mark on his forehead hearing the man speak. "Look asshole the Hokage chose us to be your escorts if you got a problem with that then you can take your mission somewhere else however I doubt you can get to another hidden village without an escort so it looks like you're stuck with us unless you wanna try to get through Hi no Kuni by yourself."

"Gaki has some guts." Tazuna said taking a swig from his cheap bottle of sake.

"Your Mission request only states that you want protection from thugs and bandits most thugs and bandits are untrained in the ways of chakra and the shinobi, unless there is more to the mission than what you are telling us?" Kakashi asked Tazuna.

"No no." Tazuna said sweating a bit.

Naruto narrowed his eyes he felt like he was being lied to Tazuna was giving off an aura that reeked of dishonesty.

"We Leave first thing in the morning I got a few things to finish up here before I leave." Tazuna said as he walked out of the room.

Naruto waited for the man to leave before he turned to his team and sensei. "I don't trust him I'm going to follow him and try and get more information from him."

"Don't get caught Naruto." Kakashi warned his student.

Naruto nodded his head and left the room following his target.

Tazuna was walking down the street his mind thinking back to the group of shinobi that were to be his escorts. Tazuna knew he had lied to them but he just couldn't afford a higher ranked mission. Tazuna then saw his destination ahead and smiled he had been lucky to have enough money to visit a brothel unaware he was being followed.

Naruto saw Tazuna enter the brothel and an idea came to his head dropping down into an alley Naruto made a hand seal and transformed into taller woman with black hair done up into three braids with her bangs covering her left eye wearing a loose fitting kimono. Once transformed the woman walked out of the alley and entered the brothel looking for her target. It wasn't hard to find the man she was after he was he was standing close to the stage watching one of the dancers. The woman approached her target.

"Mmm hello Carpenter-san." the woman said brushing up against Tazuna.

Tazuna turned his head to look at the woman who spoke to him and brushed against him. "Oh hello Miss. Why do you call me a carpenter?"

"You were simple clothing and you have defined muscles despite your heavy set appearance. This leads me to believe you are a builder of some sort." the woman replied.

"Well I am a bridge builder I'm trying to build a bridge from my homeland to the mainland but it's drawn the attention of a dangerous man." Tazuna explained.

"Then why build the bridge if it's dangerous?" the woman asked.

"Because it will break his choke hold on my country. Gato has taken over all trade in Nami and it imposes extremely high taxes on us my bridge is our only hope to break the shipping monopoly he has on our country." Tazuna explained.

"What kind of dangers does this impose to continue building your bridge." the woman questioned.

"Gato is a rich man he can hire thugs and bandits but also ninja and our country doesn't have the money to resist that's why I had to come to Konoha with what little money I have and hire ninja myself to protect me." Tazuna explained.

"But if you are poor you wouldn't be able to hire high ranking shinobi are you sure it's wise to take lower ranked shinobi into such a dangerous mission?" the woman questioned more.

"I don't have a choice without their help I'm a dead man." Tazuna said.

"I hope your mission succeeds then." the woman said as she began to walk away.

As the woman was walking away another woman bumped into her.

"Oh Lulu I'm sorry to bump into you I wasn't expecting to see you tonight what brings you here?" the woman asked the woman now known to be Lulu.

"Oh just a little recon mission I need to be going Kyuki." Lulu said to the woman who bumped into her.

"Well I hope to see you around more often you're one of our best." Kyuki said to Lulu.

"I'll try Kyuki." Lulu replied and walked away.

Lulu left the establishment and walked down the road toward the Hokage Tower.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Naruto arrived back at the Hokage Tower and walked up to the Hokage's Office and knocked on the door. Hearing an enter Naruto opened the door and walked in.

"Ah Naruto how was your recon?" the aging Kage asked.

"Can you get Kakashi-sensei here I'd rather not repeat this?" Naruto asked the Hokage.

"Of course Naruto." Hiruzen said. "Nezumi go get Hatake Kakashi."

The Anbu bowed and left the room in a basic leaf shunshin and reappeared moments later with Kakashi.

"Hokage-sama why was summoned my team doesn't leave until tomorrow?" Kakashi said.

"Naruto finished his investigation of Tazuna." the Hokage replied.

"Oh well then that makes more sense." Kakashi said turning to look at Naruto.

"Here's my report Tazuna is building a bridge to connect Nami to the mainland. The reason for this is because of a man named Gato. Gato has a chokehold monopoly on Nami and imposes extreme taxes on the people. Gato apparently has ninja in his empoy that threaten Tazuna and his bridge." Naruto reported.

"So he lied about the mission parameters this is troubling." Kakashi said.

"Yes this is very troubling." Hiruzen agreed with the jounin.

"We can't just abandon them because Tazuna lied about the mission however are you sure we can handle the Mission?" Naruto asked.

"We continue the mission as planned, we just have to be extra careful and be ready to face enemy shinobi. Naruto you were trained beyond the scopes of an academy student so I trust you however Sasuke and Sakura weren't trained like you were yes Sasuke is better trained than Sakura is but even he isn't on your level when you don't hold back." Kakashi explained.

"I think we should spend the day training to get us ready for the mission." Naruto said.

"I already told Sasuke and Sakura that we have the day off but I am sure you and Sasuke will take the chance to train more." Kakashi replied.

"Maybe I can train with Anko-sensei." Naruto said.

"That would be a good idea." Kakashi replied to his student.

Naruto nodded and left the Office leaving his team's sensei and the Hokage to talk while he went to train.

* * *

A/N: Thats is for this chapter hope you all enjoyed it see you in the next one.


	3. Chapter 3

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune **

Chapter 03

Naruto walked up to the gate his go bag over his shoulder wearing his usual outfit consisting of his black bodysuit, burnt orange jacket, hitai-ate around his wait on black cloth, shin guards, kunai holster on his right thigh, and black ninja shoes. In his bag he had a spare kunai holster, MREs, and several spare sets of clothes packed into a scroll. As Naruto approached the gate he saw Sasuke and Sakura along with Tazuna and as usual Sakura was pestering Sasuke for a date while Sasuke was ignoring the pinkette.

"Sakura instead of pestering Sasuke for a date, why don't you do something more productive like train." Naruto said to the only female of Team Seven.

"Shut up Naruto no one asked you." Sakura yelled.

"If you spent as much time training as you did on your looks you would actually be able to hold your own against me or Sasuke. I don't want to have to be the one that saves you from an enemy just because you refuse to train properly." Naruto explained.

"Shut up Naruto I do just fine." Sakura yelled not wanting to hear Naruto's words.

Just as Sakura finished yelling at Naruto Kakashi arrived reading his orange book. "Oh you're all here good."

"Hey Kakashi-sensei." Naruto greeted.

"Hello Naruto. Well since everyone is here, I guess it's time to get going we have a lot of distance ahead of us." Kakashi said to his team and their client.

The three genin nodded to their sensei putting all personal feelings aside for the time being. Naruto knew that this mission was dangerous there was a pretty good chance that they would have to fight either enemy shinobi or worse, rogue shinobi. The difference between enemy and rogue shinobi was simple enemy shinobi were from a ninja village and still had rules. Rogue shinobi are shinobi that abandoned their village and stopped following the rules of any shinobi village.

Naruto was leading the party keeping an eye on the road and surrounding forest looking for signs of an ambush from either thugs or enemy shinobi. Naruto didn't know why but he had heightened senses including scent, sight, hearing. This allowed Naruto to be a skilled tracker and also helped Naruto avoid those who would do him harm.

After a few miles of walking Naruto saw a puddle to the side of the road. Naruto narrowed his eyes as he smelled the air and could smell the scent of two people around the puddle. Naruto knew this was an ambush as it hadn't rained in a few weeks and the weather was warm, there was no way a puddle would still be lingering on a warm day when it hadn't rained. Naruto looked back to his sensei who nodded letting Naruto know he saw it puddle and could tell it was a trap. Naruto pretended not to notice the trap and walked pass the puddle his hand resting on his kunai holster.

As the group passed the puddle Sasuke and Sakura were oblivious to its presence, if Sasuke noticed the puddle he didn't show it. Once the group passed two figures rose from the puddle and made their move. A chain wrapped around Kakashi and tore him to pieces and moved onto the other targets.

The Next target was Sakura who was frozen in fear helpless due to her watching her sensei just get killed. Just before the two shinobi reached Sakura Naruto appeared in front of her and blocked the attack with his body. Naruto engaged the two shinobi in taijutsu repelling them. Naruto had a tanto in his right hand and a kunai in his left using them to block the gauntlets that each of his opponents were wearing. Naruto was doing a fairly good job at keeping his opponents at bay by himself with Sakura still frozen in fear.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Came the voice of Sasuke.

As Naruto heard the words He jumped back away form the two shinobi just as a large fireball engulfed them.

"Watch it Teme you could have gotten me with that jutsu as well." Naruto yelled.

"You were able to get out of the way Dobe." Sasuke said coldly.

"Naruto is right Sasuke you need to be mindful of your teammates when using ninjutsu." Kakashi's voice said as the man walked out of the tree line.

"Sensei you're alive." Sakura said relieved.

"Yes I am alive I wanted to test you guys to see if you could handle things without me, apparently I miscalculated." Kakashi said as he walked over to Naruto. "Naruto lift up your shirt and let me look at that wound of yours."

"Huh wound? I didn't get hit." Naruto tried to say as he looked down to see he did in fact have a wound.

Naruto took off his jacket and lifted the top of his body suit so Kakashi could see the wound clearly.

"As I thought their gauntlets were poisoned. Looks like we'll have to go back." Kakashi said.

"I Have a high quality antidote it should neutralize any poison in my system." Naruto replied.

"Take it then we will watch your condition if it looks like you can't go on we'll turn back." Kakashi ordered. "Tazuna it seems you lied about the scope of your mission request you never said there would be Shinobi after you."

"My Village is poor I didn't have the money for anything higher than a C Rank. You see a man named Gato came to Nami and bought up all trade and now imposes high taxes. As a result we are left with very little money, even the leader of our village has little money. Without help our village will starve. My bridge is to try and break Gato's hold on our village and bring life back into our village." Tazuna explained.

Sakura felt sorry for Tazuna's situation, Sasuke saw this as an opportunity to test his strength. Naruto already knew this as he had been the one to discover this when he had used his henge to seduce Tazuna.

"You don't have the money to pay for a higher ranked Mission but you can go to a brothel?" Naruto questioned.

"H-how did you know I went to a brothel?" Tazuna asked nervously.

"I was the geisha that you spoke to and confessed that you were in danger for building your bridge. Kakashi and the old man knew about what I learned from you." Naruto explained.

Tazuna swallowed nervously. "Then why are you still helping me after I lied?"

"Because the old man said the mission continues and expects reimbursement when we finish the mission and restore trade to your village." Naruto explained.

"Naruto lets get your wound wrapped and take that antidote." Kakashi said.

"Already took the antidote sensei." Naruto replied to Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded and pulled out first aid supplies and began to wrap Naruto's wound. Kakashi noticed that Naruto's wound was already starting to heal.

'_That's strange Naruto's wound is already healing.'_ Kakashi thought as he bandaged Naruto's wound.

Once Naruto's wound had been wrapped Naruto lowered his top and put his torn jacket back on. With the Rogue shinobi dead and the truth revealed about the true nature of the mission they were on Naruto hoped Sakura and Sasuke would see that they couldn't just worry about themselves any more but the whole team. Naruto put his ruined Jacket back on and walked past the group to retake his position as scout he knew the dangers of being a shinobi he just hoped that Sasuke and Sakura learned them as well.

Deep in Naruto's psyche a large fox lay behind large red bars a cage inside the boys mind with red chakra seeping out from the bars. This chakra is what was healing Naruto as well as purging the poison from his system.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

After a while of walking dusk was approaching Kakashi had called for the team to stop and set up camp. Naruto had set up his tent and went inside to replace his outfit with a fresh set of clothes. Granted it was the same exact outfit but not the ruined set were in his bag and he was wearing a new set.

After Naruto changed his clothes he went to gather some firewood to start a fire it wasn't cold but a cooked meal was often better than MREs when given the chance. After Naruto had gathered the wood for a small cooking fire Naruto decided to go to the river he had seen and try and catch some fish. After a while he did manage to catch five decent sized fish. Once he was back at camp with the fish Naruto cleaned the fish and set them up on sticks and put them over the fire to cook then set about to forage some other fruits to go with the fish.

When Naruto returned with some fruit Sakura spoke up.

"Naruto Where did you learn to do all this, I thought you were an Orphan." Sakura asked.

"It's true I am an orphan but I live alone and I don't always have a lot of money so I learned to hunt and fish as well as forage and garden so I always have food." Naruto explained.

"But who taught you?" Sakura asked.

"Hokage-Jiji. He taught me the basics then told me I had to learn the rest myself since you can't teach some skills by lecture alone." Naruto replied.

"You need to respect the Hokage Naruto." Sakura scolded the blonde for his nickname for the Hokage.

"I do respect him I just call him Jiji because he was always there for me and taught me things when i had no one else to turn to. Hokage-Jiji never corrected me on so I never called him anything else." Naruto explained to the pinkette.

After the fish finished cooking Naruto distributed the fish and fruits to each member of the team Sakura tried to deny her fish saying she was on a diet but Naruto told her that she wouldn't gain weight from fish and fruit, that and Sakura's stomach growled wanting the food. After everyone ate their dinner it was completely dark and time for bed.

"Alright we will be setting up a schedule for guard duty we have eight hours before sun rise so we will be doing two hour shifts between the four of us." Kakashi said clearly.

"I'll take first shift." Naruto spoke up first.

"Hn, guess I'll take second shift." Sasuke spoke up.

"I'll take last shift." Sakura said wanting to get the most sleep she could, she had to look good for Sasuke after all and getting a full night's rest would help.

"Guess that leaves me with the third shift." Kakashi said. "Alright with the guard schedule set I suggest we all get some rest we still have a ways to go and the next enemy we face will be stronger than the Demon Brothers."

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

The next morning everyone woke up. Sakura was already up from her shift and Naruto had woken up before everyone else and did done hunting and foraging while the others slept. Naruto had managed to get a couple of rabbits then skinned and bled them and began to cook them over the fire, it was this that everyone woke up to.

Sakura had refused to eat the rabbit but ate some fruit that Naruto had gathered while he was hunting. Naruto didn't quite understand why Sakura refused the rabbit as it was still good for her but then again he was used to living off the land while Sakura was not. Sasuke didn't care either way nor did Kakashi who thanked Naruto for the meal. After breakfast Naruto put out the fire using sand and dirt as not to create any smoke that an enemy could see and took his place in front of the group acting as a scout once again.

After spending most of the day walking the groups came to a waterfront it was nearing dusk again so they wouldn't be able to cross the water today and they still needed to be wary for enemy shinobi knowing that the Demon brothers were more than likely working under someone much stronger.

"Alright we'll make camp here our contact to ferry us across won't be here until the morning so we will have to wait until they arrive." Kakashi told the group. "Naruto walk with me."

"Ok sensei." Naruto replied as he walked over to join his sensei.

"Sasuke, Sakura you two set up camp and get a small fire going Naruto and I will bring dinner back." Kakahsi ordered the rest of his team.

"Yes Sensei." Sakura replied.

With tasks handed out Kakashi led Naruto away from the camp into the forest. And led his far enough so that the others couldn't hear them.

"Naruto I want to talk to you about something." Kakashi said to his blonde student.

"What's up sensei?" Naruto asked.

Naruto when I looked at your wound I noticed something unusual." Kakashi began to say.

Naruto swallowed wondering what his sensei noticed. "What was it sensei?"

"Well to be frank it was the bandages wrapped around your chest. I know you tried to keep them hidden but when I was putting the bandage on your wound I saw them. I doubt the others noticed but I need you to be honest with me why are you wearing bandages?" Kakashi questioned his student.

Naruto sighed in defeat the young blond knew it was only a matter of time before someone found out about his secret. "I'm a girl, only Jiji knows about this. I didn't want to be treated differently just because I'm a girl. It's worked out so far though I think Shikamaru knows something about me and maybe Kiba he avoids me like the plague when I'm on my period." Naruto explained.

"I see thank you for being honest I will keep your secret and don't worry I will not be putting you in a room with Sasuke I know you don't like him much and we don't need him finding out your secret." Kakashi said.

"Sakura won't want to be my roommate either she doesn't like me and if she found out my secret things would be worse for me." Naruto pointed out.

"Fair point but we can't have Sasuke and Sakura in the same room either I guess we will have to keep all three of you in your own rooms if we stay in a hotel." Kakashi said with a sigh.

* * *

**A/N:** Plot twist Naruto is a Girl. Now I didn't originally plan this but that's how the chapter came out sorry for those who might not like it.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **I would like to say this now until Naruto comes out fully as a girl you will see me use both male and female pronouns to refer to Naruto i will use female pronouns when it's just Naruto alone and male pronouns when Naruto is in a group as they believe Naruto is a boy.

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune **

Chapter 04

Naruto woke up in her tent which had a seal to keep unwanted visitors out, it was a seal often given to kunoichi to protect them while they sleep. Nariko sat up in her tent and stretched out any kinks in her body derived from her sleep. Nariko sighed she didn't like hiding her gender but she knew it was important for her to do so until she was strong enough to protect herself. Nariko didn't know why this was put into place and whenever she asked about it her grandfather figure always told her to trust him.

The Truth was simple: she was the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi, however no one knew about the Kyuubi as everyone was led to believe that the Fourth Hokage killed the beast at the cost of his own life. Nariko just so happened to have been born on the same day which while no one was openly violent toward her there was some hostility.

Naruto got out of her sleeping bag and grabbed her bandages and began to wrap her chest to appear more like a boy. Once wrapped she grabbed her the top of her black bodysuit and put it on then the bottoms of her bodysuit and finally her socks and ninja shoes before finally grabbing her jacket and putting it on and zipping it up. And just like that Naruto went from looking like a girl to looking like a boy, Naruto often kept her hair short to prevent it from looking to girly. Once dressed Naruto walked out of her tent and joined her sensei who had taken the last shift for guard duty.

Naruto looked at his watch and saw it was still early but he didn't have time to go hunting or fishing but maybe he could go foraging but he wouldn't have a lot of time. So Naruto pulled out one of his MREs and put some water into the pouch so it could cook. After a few minutes Naruto removed the meal packet from the cooking pouch and opened it and began to eat his meal. It wasn;t the most tasteful meal to eat but it was better than nothing. As Naruto began to eat he heard the sounds of his teammates emerging from their tents and walk over to the campfire.

"Morning Kakashi-sensei, morning Naruto." Sakura said to Naruto and Kakashi before walking over to Sasuke. "Morning Sasuke-kun."

"Leave me alone." Sasuke said coldly to Sakura.

Sakura looked hurt but she held strong.

"I have no idea what you see in him." Naruto said not caring if Sasuke heard or not.

"Of course you don't you're not a girl." Sakura said condescendingly toward Naruto.

"Maybe not but who's to say I'm not gay. You don't know everything about me Sakura you may think you know me from the academy but the truth is I hid a lot about myself while in the academy and now that we are out of the academy i don't have to hold back unless we are sparing each other." Naruto explained to his teammate hoping to get his point across.

"What that's just gross boy's shouldn't be with boys." Sakura said her civilian heritage rearing through.

"That's your civilian heritage talking the truth it love is blind it doesn't care about gender or upbringing. But don't worry I'm not going after your precious Sasuke. My point is Sasuke doesn't care about you or anyone else all he wants to do is get revenge for his clan you and all the other fangirls say he is oh so cool but the truth is he will never return your affection and if he does get married it will not be out of love but to restore his clan." Naruto explained further.

"Just shut up Naruto you don't know what you are talking about." Sakura yelled at her blonde teammate.

Kakashi was in the background listening to the whole thing and he had to admit Naruto made a number of good points. '_Naruto made a number of good points but Sakura is to blind to see them and Sasuke hasn't said a word about anything Naruto said about him meaning he is probably ignoring both Naruto and Sakura.'_

Naruto sighed he had wanted to help Sakura but it seemed that Sakura wasn't going to listen to him. Naruto went back to his breakfast rather annoyed with his teammates Sasuke for being a jerk and Sakura for well being a fangirl for the jerk.

"Hey dobe why didn't you cook anything this morning?" Sasuke said in a demanding tone.

"One, I'm not your servant. Two, I didn't have enough time to go hunting this morning. Three, you have rations just like I do. And four, I don't have to cook for you. Yes I have been cooking for the whole group when given the chance but i don't have to do so so don't demand that I cook for you." Naruto said rather annoyed by Sasuke's demand.

Sasuke wasn't pleased about the answer he got. He was an Uchiha and elite he deserved better than MRE's and Ration bars. Kakashi said nothing as he himself had eaten an MRE before anyone had woken up. After everyone had eaten their breakfast a boat arrived on the shore by their campsite. This was their contact to ferry them across the water to Nami.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

After their trek across the water the neared Nami it was as the neared Nami Naruto saw a giant bridge.

"Whoa that's huge." Naruto said having not seen anything as big as the bridge he was seeing now.

"Naruto quiet down, we aren't safe yet if we get caught we will be in trouble." Kakashi warned his student.

"Sorry sensei." Naruto said quieter.

Once across the water the group got off the small boat and began to walk again. Their destination was the Home of Tazuna. As the group was walking Naruto in front again keeping an eye out for traps or signs for an ambush.

After a while of walking a noise alerted Naruto who held up a hand signaling for the group to stop. Naruto walked over to the bush where he heard the sound and began to investigate. Naruto reemerged from the brush holding a white rabbit.

"False alarm it was just a rabbit." Naruto said petting the rabbit.

'_Strange that's a snow rabbit it's fur should be brown this time of year, not white.'_ Kakashi thought to himself before he heard something flying through the air. "Everyone get down." the Jonin yelled tackling Tazuna to the ground.

As everyone in the group hit the ground a large sword flew over their heads and lodged itself in a nearby tree.

"So Hatake Kakashi no wonder the Demon Brothers failed." a man said as he appeared standing on the sword.

"Actually it was my students who killed the Demon Brothers not me." Kakashi clarified.

"I see well then I guess I shouldn't just brush them off but still they are no threat to me." the man said. "I'm here for the old man so if you would please hand him over this won't have to get messy."

"Sorry but that isn't going to happen." Kakashi said. "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura make a triangle formation around Tazuna and protect him at all costs this man isn't someone to take lightly."

"Who is he exactly?" Naruto asked.

"Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Hidden Mist. He is beyond your level to fight so you three stay out of this fight and let me deal with him." Kakashi said firmly.

"How cute, trying to protect your precious genin. Konoha has gotten soft since the war." Zabuza said with malice in his voice. "Shame really that now I have to kill you."

"I won't let my comrades die." Kakashi said firmly lifting his hitai-ate to reveal his left eye which held the famed Sharingan Eye.

Zabuza form a hand sign that caused the fog to thicken as he disappeared in the fog. "Well just see about that." Zabuza said.

Kakashi was on his guard as were the members of Team Seven though Sakura was shaking in fear she had never faced such large amounts of killing intent. Sasuke wasn't fairing much better despite having his whole clan be murdered by his own brother. Naruto was fairing the best being able to keep himself in control but she had to admit Zabuza was intimidating and he would be a fool not to be scared of the man.

"Eight points; Larynx, Spine, Lungs, Liver, Jugular, Subclavian artery, Kidneys, Heart." came the voice of Zabuza.

Naruto was trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from but was unable to do so.

Just then Zabuza appeared in the middle of the group ready to strike. However Naruto was able to twist on his feet and stab Zabuza in the gut, however water began to pour from the wound rather than blood.

"Impressive the gaki was actually able to land a serious hit had it actually been me." Zabuza said his voice was still coming from all around them.

"Naruto has been trained by one of our best assassins. He knows how to end a fight quickly." Kakashi said his tone even lacking any real emotion.

"Then perhaps I should kill him now before he can become a real threat to my plans." Zabuza said coldly.

"I would advise against that line of thinking." Kakashi said just as cold.

Zabuza appeared once again ready to kill Naruto only instead of cutting Naruto in half Zabuza had cut Kakashi in half only for the two halves to turn to water and fall to the ground.

"What a Water when did he make a water clone?" Zabuza questioned.

"I had copied your jutsu the moment I said I wouldn't let my comrades die." Kakshi said as he placed a kunai to Zabuza's throat. "Surrender."

"Never." Zabuza said as he kicked Kakashi out into the water.

As Kakashi surfaced he noticed the water was different than normal water.

Zabuza then appeared beside him "You've gotten sloppy Kakashi." the man said as he formed a water prison around Kakashi.

"Take Tazuna and run. He has to stay here for his prison to hold me and water clones can only travel so far from the original." Kakashi ordered his team.

"Sensei wasn't it you that taught us that those who break the rules are trash but those the abandon to their comrades are worse than trash." Naruto said repeating a lesson that Kakashi had taught his team in hopes that they work together.

"You taught them that bunch of garbage?" Zabuza asked almost laughing as he created a water clone to kill the genin.

Naruto formed a hand sign crossing his forefinger and middle finger over the same two finger forming a cross shape seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Zabuza sees the display of the high ranked clone jutsu and smirks thinking that the kid might be more fun to kill than he first thought.

Naruto on the other hand has an idea of his own with no intention of actually fighting Zabuza. "Hey Sasuke lend me your ear I have a plan."

"Whatever Dobe." Sasuke said but still lets Naruto say his plan.

After Naruto tells Sasuke the plan all the clones dispel leaving only Sasuke and Sakura with Tazuna with Naruto nowhere to be found.

"The Hell? What the gaki get scared and run after that spout about abandoning your comrades?" Zabuza asked not really all that happy.

"I wouldn't underestimate Naruto. He has a tendency to do what you least expect him to." Kakahsi said wondering what Naruto had planned.

Just then Sasuke pulled out a collapsible fuma shuriken and threw it at Zabuza. The fuma shuriken passed the water clone and was aimed at the real Zabuza who caught the weapon only to see a second one emerge from its shadow. Zabuza jumped over the second fuma shuriken.

"To easy gaki you'll have to do better than that to get at me." Zabuza taunted.

"This good enough?" came Naruto's voice from behind Zabuza throwing a couple of junai at the Missing Nin.

Zabuza cursed and pulled his hand from the prison and caught the kunai and discarded it and turned to bring his sword down on Naruto only for it to be blocked by Kakashi.

"Your fight is with me." Kakashi said coldly his Sharingan in full view. "And I should warn you the same trick won't work on me twice."

Zabuza jumps back from Kakashi landing on the water's surface "You won't win Kakashi of the Sharingan no matter what tricks you pull." Zabuza said as he began to run through hand signs.

Much to Zabuza's surprise Kakashi was going through the exact same seals as him at the exact same time without delay. Both men landed on the exact same seal at the end of the series of hand signs.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" both men shouted at the same time.

As the two men declared their attacks two dragons emerged from the water's surface made entirely out of water and began to intertwine and battle one another. Zabuza was furious with Kakashi as the white haired jonin had used Zabuza's own jutsu against him.

"What kind of Monkey are you?" Zabzua asked the copy ninja.

"Haven't you heard? I am Hatake Kakashi the Copy Ninja the man said to have copied over a thousand jutsu." Kakahsi replied to the question.

Zabuza growled at Kakashi and brought his sword down against Kakashi once again only for the blade to be blocked by a simple kunai. Zabuza attempts a horizontal slash only to see Kakashi jump up and land on the flat side of the blade. Zabuza was enraged by this perceiving it as a taunt and mockery of his skills. Zabuza twists the blade up to attempt to cleave Kakashi in half but the copy ninja simply jumps off the blade and out of harm's way. The battle raged on with Kakashi making a fool of Zabuza who jumped back one last time to attempt another jutsu.

"I will close the damned money eye for good you can't beat me with simple tricks." Zabuza yelled.

"Oh but you see I can and I will." Kakashi said plainly no real emotion in his voice.

Zabuza began to run through hand signs once more and just like last time Kakashi did the same copying each and every seal. However something caught Zabuza's eye, it was behind Kakashi and when Zabuza looked he saw himself behind Kakashi causing the missing nin to pause. That pause was all Kakashi needed.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" Kakashi yelled.

As Kakashi declared the jutsu a large vortex of water rose up from the water and engulfed Zabuza doing quite a bit of damage the missing nin.

Zabuza stood on his feet weakly and glared at Kakashi. "How is this possible? Can you see the future?"

"Yes and I foresee your death." Kakashi replied.

Just then two senbon needles fly through the air and embed themselves into Zabuza's neck seemingly killing the missing nin as the man fell to the ground.

"Thank you Konoha Shinobi I have been hunting Zabuza for some time now and your battle helped in my mission. I must take leave now and dispose of the body." the hunter nin said.

"Well I am glad to have helped in your mission." Kakashi said as he closed his left eye and replaced his hitai-ate so it was over his eye to keep it closed.

The Hunter nin gathered up Zabuza's body and left via shunshin.

"Sensei, who was that just now?" Sakura asked.

"A Hunter Ninja. Hunter Ninja are specialized shinobi who go after missing ninja to prevent the secrets of their village safe." Naruto explained showing some of what he had been taught by Anko.

"Very good explanation Naruto." Kakashi said. "Now let's get to Tazuna's."

Kakashi went to take a step forward and collapsed on the spot shocking all of his students. Naruto sighed and walked over to Kakashi and picked him up to carry him.

"Tazuna-san which way to your house." Naruto asked.


	5. Chapter 5

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune **

Chapter 05

Uzumaki Naruto and his team arrived at Tazuna's home where they met Tazuna's daughter Tsunami and his young grandson Inari who Naruto didn't like from the moment they met. Inari had said that they were all going to die if they went up against Gato though his mother had yelled at him causing the boy to run off crying.

Currently though Naruto was outside the house having a sparring session with his clones he was going over the events in his mind about the hunter nin that took Zabuza's body away, something just wasn't sitting right with him. First the hunter nin had used senbon something that in of itself wasn't lethal, second the hunter nin targeted the neck a location that was also nonlethal, and thirdly the hunter nin had taken the body instead of destroying the corpse on the spot. All of these facts caused red flags to rise in Naruto's mind and they all pointed to the same conclusion, Zabuza was still alive.

Inside the house Kakashi sat up groaning in pain. "Damn overused my Sharingan." Kakashi said to no one in particular.

Kakashi then began to think over his battle with Zabuza and how it ended and ultimately he had the same conclusion as Naruto Zabuza was still alive. With Zabuza still alive this meant that Kakashi would need to train his team for their next encounter with Zabuza and the false hunter nin. With his goal in mind he reached for his bag and pulled out a scroll and unsealed a pair of crutches and got up to find his team.

Sakura was downstairs reading a book on medical ninjutsu as she knew she would never be much of a frontline fighter like Sasuke or Naruto. But she refused to be useless to her team and Medical Ninjutsu seemed like a good path for her.

Sasuke was reading a scroll from his family trying to improve on his clan skills but he was hindered by the fact most of his clan skills required an active sharingan. Speaking of the sharingan Sasuke wanted to know how Kakashi got his, did he steal it?

"Where is Naruto?" Kakashi asked his two students.

"Outside sparing with his clones." Sakura replied.

"Let's all go outside shall we." Kakashi said to his two students.

Kakashi led Sakura and Sasuke outside where they found Naruto sparring with his clones. Naruto stopped his spar as he heard his teammates approach.

"What's up Sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Well you three we are going to do some training." Kakashi said with a smile.

"What kind of training?" Sakura asked.

"Tree climbing." Kakashi replied simply.

"How will that help up?" Sasuke said thinking it was something stupid and useless.

"Ah but you misunderstand you will only be allowed to use your feet to climb the trees." Kakashi explained. "Here I'll demonstrate."

Kakashi walked over to a tree and then proceeded to walk up the tree.

"The Idea is to channel chakra into your feet so they stick to the tree." Kakashi explained. "Use these to mark your progress." Kakashi said throwing three kunai at the ground.

Naruto walked over and picked up a kunai and walked to a tree and began to channel chakra into his feet and began to walk up the tree. Naurto had learned this exercise while training with Anko in hopes to get Naruto's chakra under control so he could use the basic bunshin. It didn't work but Naurot still learned a valuable skill.

Sakura also walked over and grabbed a kunai and and walked up a tree only to fall. However after a few tries Sakura was able to walk up the tree.

Sasuke was the last one to try and he fell right away but he tried and tried again each time falling.

"Good job Naruto and Sakura though I honestly expected Naruto to have problems with this exercise." Kakashi confessed.

"I kind of already learned it when I was training with Anko-sensei. She had me learn it while trying to help me with the basic bunshin no jutsu." Naruto confessed to his sensei.

"I see. Well that certainly explains things." Kakashi said and made two shadow clones. "Sasuke you stay here and learn the tree climbing exercise. Sakura you go with my clone it will help you get started on learning medical ninjutsu if that is what you truly wish to learn. Naruto you come with me. I think I know what to teach you."

Sasuke growled slightly not liking that Sakura and Naruto were getting specialized training while he was stuck climbing a tree.

"Why do they get special training while I have to climb a stupid tree." Sasuke said angrily.

"Sasuke the tree climbing exercise is far more useful than you think it helps one learn to control their chakra as well as teach them to climb any surface." Kakashi reprimanded.

"Whatever." Sasuke said as he turned back to the tree.

"Sasuke, learn the tree exercise and I will train you like I am training Sakura and Naruto." Kakashi said giving Sasuke incentive to complete the exercise.

Sasuke turned back toward the tree and began to channel his chakra and made a running start toward the tree determined to learn this exercise.

Kakashi left one of his clones with Sasuke while the other went with Sakura and the real Kakashi went with Naruto. Kakashi lead Naruto to the other side of the Tazuna's house out of Sasuke's line of sight.

"Alright Naruto take this piece of paper and push some chakra through it." Kakashi said pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to Naruto.

"What does it do?" Naruto asked as he took the paper.

"It will tell me what element you chakra is naturally attuned to." Kakashi explained. "Here I'll demonstrate."

Kakashi took a second piece of paper out of his pocket and pushed chakra into it. The paper wrinkled in between Kakashi's fingers.

"As you can see the paper wrinkled this is because I have the lightning elemental nature release." Kakashi explained. "Each person has one of five elements: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water. Each element has its strengths and weaknesses. Fire beats Wind but is weak to Water. There are also special clans that can have an elemental Kekkei Genkai that combine two elements together to make a whole new element."

"That is so cool." Naruto said her voice slipping in her excitement.

"Naruto I understand it's cool and all but we don't want the others knowing that you're a girl so tone down the excitement." Kakashi told the girl.

"Sorry sensei." Naurto said rubbing the back of her head.

"Anyway now you try. Just channel chakra like you normally would and the paper will read your chakra nature." Kakashi instructed.

Naruto nodded and focused her chakra into her right hand where she was holding the paper between her fingers like Kakashi had done and watched as the paper split in half.

"Ah a wind element wasn't expecting that to be honest as it's quite rare in Hi no Kuni. But don't worry I can get you started on learning to harness it and learn to control it." Kakashi said with a smile to his blonde student.

"Aww I was hoping to get water so I could learn that cool dragon jutsu." Naruto said slightly pouting.

"No one said you can only learn one element. My natural affinity is lightning but I can use all five natures." Kakashi explained. "Learn the wind element first then I will teach you how to use water so you can learn the Suiryudan."

"You got it sensei." Naruto said, showing her excitement once again.

Naruto loved learning new jutsu and had plenty of chakra to spare so she never really ran out of chakra though no one seemed to know why she had so much.

"Alright Naruto your first task in learning to control wind chakra is to split a leaf in half using just your chakra." Kakashi said. "The idea is to picture your chakra like a blade cutting the leaf the this and sharper the blade the easier it is to cut things."

Naruto picked up a leaf and focused her chakra trying to picture it like a sharp blade cutting the leaf in her hand. While she got a result the leaf was completely shredded by Naruto's chakra.

"Not so much chakra try using the smallest amount of chakra and build up." Kakashi guided.

"Right." Naruto replied.

Naruto grabbed another leaf and this time she tried using as little chakra as she could, however she still shredded the leaf. Kakashi frowned but an idea came to his mind. Kakashi reached into another one of his pockets and pulled out another piece of paper and handed it to Naruto.

"Here try this, its special chakra resistant paper it should help you hone your chakra control and it won't shred with the smallest amount of chakra." Kakashi said handing the paper over to Naruto.

Naruto took the paper and focused her chakra into it and noticed it was much harder to push her chakra into the paper. Naruto though didn't get discouraged in fact she welcomed the challenge as it meant she would learn to control her chakra better.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Meanwhile Sakura was learning to create medical chakra from both her book and Kakashi's clone. With Sakura's perfect chakra control she was a perfect candidate to be a medic nin or genjutsu specialist. However it seemed that Sakura had chosen to be a medic nin.

"Very good Sakura you are learning very quickly. To be honest you appear to be a perfect example of someone primed for medical ninjutsu." Kakashi's clone said.

"Thank you sensei." Sakura said to the clone.

"If you train every day this week by the end of the week you should be able to heal minor injuries." the clone said.

"I'll do my best sensei." Sakura said she was determined to learn all she could. She had found something that interested her and she didn't want to slow her teammates down. She knew that she wasn't a chakra powerhouse like Naruto, nor was she a prodigy like Sasuke.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Sasuke had made some good progress with his tree climbing he wasn't done yet but he made quite a bit of progress he could now make it about half way up the tree before he lost his concentration.

"You're improving Sasuke good but you're still focusing too much on it just just let your chakra flow at a slow steady pace just enough to cling to the tree." Kakashi's clone instructed.

"I still don't see why I can't learn what the dobe and Sakura are learning." Sasuke said annoyed.

"Because their training isn't for you its unique to them. Once you have finished the tree climbing exercise then I will train you the same way." the clone said to Sasuke. "Also I would calm yourself if you have too many emotions you won't be able to focus your chakra as well."

"Whatever." Sasuke said as he channeled his chakra again and ran toward the tree.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

The three genin spent most of the day training each focusing on their individual tasks around dinner time Kakashi called it quits for the day. Each of the three genin had spent the day training their chakra which proved tiring for them, even Naruto who had never really exhausted his chakra felt tired from all the chakra he used trying to cut the paper. Kakashi led his team back into Tazuna's where they went to clean themselves up for dinner.

Tsunami had made a simple dinner for her family and team seven. While they were sitting at the dinner table the young boy Inari spoke up.

"Why do you try so hard you're just going to die. No one can beat Gato." Inari said.

"So what we're just supposed to sit here and let him get away with the wrong he is doing?" Naruto asked. "Your Grandfather is risking a lot to build a bridge to try and give you a better life. Is he going to lie down and die because you think no one can stop Gato. Your grandfather isn't going to stop because he believes that his bridge will bring new life into Nami. And I for one wont stop until Gato is stopped."

Nartuo got up from the dinner table and walked outside needing to clear his head. He didn't like people who just gave up because something seemed hard.

"You'll have to forgive Naruto he hasn't had the best of life. I understand where he is coming from, he has had to fight for everything he has. He's an orphan and he doesn't have many people who support him." Kakashi explained.

Outside Naruto was sitting on the roof with his paper focusing his chakra trying to cut the paper in half but was finding it more challenging than before. Naruto sighed and put the paper away and jumped off the roof and headed for town he knew it was late and most people would be inside with their families but Naruto needed to clear his head.

As Naruto walked through town he saw how rundown everything was he even saw a few people rummaging through trash can's looking for food which saddened him. Naruto sighed he knew he couldn't let this go he had to do something to help the people of Nami. Naruto then saw another building one that didn't belong in a place like Nami, a brothel. Naruto knew his way around a brothel hell he worked in one while he was in the academy under the disguise as Lulu to help pay for things as he didn't get much from the orphan stipend the Hokage had given him.

Naruto made a hand seal and in an instant the boy was replaced by an older male with spiky blonde hair with jaw length bangs framing his face. The man was wearing the standard uniform for Konoha with a green flack jacket. The man then walked into the brothel and looked around taking survey of the occupants. In the brothel the man could see a number of women most the man assumed were nami residents forced to work to pay off debts to Gato or simply to make money to feed their families and a great number of thugs.

The man walked further into the brothel ignoring the thugs that were giving him looks like he didn't belong there, which was true the man didn't belong there but he was there anyway. The man was not happy with what he saw. He didn't like the idea of women being forced to work in brothels. While he understood why some women did it he didn't like it when they were forced into the profession.

The man walked up to one of the working girls and spoke calmly. "Hello there."

"Oh hello sir welcome to Gato's Palace how can I help you?" the woman asked.

The man frowned slightly at the name of the establishment. "I hope so I was wondering if you might take me to one of the back rooms to talk."

"Certainly sir." the woman said walking towards the back rooms that were for private dances and other things.

Once in one of the back rooms and away from ear shot of all the thugs and other working girls the man relaxed a little he knew brothels didn't allow listening devices in the back rooms, even if they were owned by a crime lord. However just to be safe the man pulled out a privacy seal and put it on the door and activated it then swept the room for bugs. When he found none he smiled and turned back to the woman he was talking to.

"Tell me About Gato's operation here in Nami." the man said.

"I shouldn't talk about Gato-sama." the woman said.

"I have a privacy seal active and there are no bugs in the room you're safe to talk here." the man said.

"Who are you?" the woman asked.

"You can call me Minato." the man said.

"Minato-san what can you do if i talk to you about Gato?" the woman asked.

"I can get rid of him." Minato said seriously.

"Gato runs a shipping company but that's just a surface company not his real work. Gato ships drugs, weapons, he even does human trafficking most of the girls in this brothel work for Gato to pay off debts and try and feed their families." the woman said.

"Where is his main base?" Minato asked.

"He took over the Village leader's compound just outside the village." the woman said. "I haven't been there myself so I can't tell you what he has done to the place."

"That's ok I can get in without raising the alarm." Minato said with a smirk. "One last thing before I go, How much is a private dance I don't want you to get in trouble for talking with me."

"A thousand Ryo." the woman said.

Minato pulled out a green frog wallet and pulled out a one thousand Ryo bill and handed it to the woman before standing up to leave.


	6. Chapter 6

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune**

Chapter 06

Once Minato was far enough away from the brothel he ducked into an alleyway but a voice stopped him before he could cancel his henge.

"Sensei?" came the voice of one Hatake Kakashi.

'_Damn Kakashi sensei is here and he found me before I could undo the henge.'_ Minato who was really Naruto in disguise though as he turned to the older man and undid the henge before his eyes. "Sorry Kakashi-sensei but I'm not really Minato. I just borrowed his form to gather some much needed information."

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked in disbelief. "Naruto, why did you use the form of the Fourth Hokage that was extremely dangerous if you don't have the skill to back up his appearance. That was beyond reckless and stupid."

"Sorry sensei but I needed to get information and at the time the fourth Hokage was a good bet." Naruto explained why he had chosen the fourth as the target of his henge.

"What if you had run into a shinobi form Iwa while in the henge they would have had no remorse for killing you to exact revenge for what Minato did to them in the war." Kakashi reprimanded. "Did you at least learn anything you can use?"

"Yes. Gato's Shipping Company is just a front his real work is shipping drugs, weapons, even human trafficking. I also learned where his main base is in Nami and I plan to infiltrate it and take him out." Naruto explained.

"How are you getting in?" Kakashi asked.

"Well I was planning to use my unrivaled stealth to infiltrate the compound and make my way to Gato." Naruto replied.

"It would be a good idea to have a distraction." Kakashi pointed out.

"Sensei you are in no shape to cause a distraction you are barely able to stand without those crutches." Naruto countered.

"You're right I can't help and Sasuke and Sakura can't help either. And if we wait for any of us to be ready our chances of success grow smaller." Kakashi admitted in defeat. "Naruto are you sure you can do this on your own?"

"Kakashi-sensei you hurt me don't you know I am the Prankster King of Konoha. Plus I was the top student in the stealth and infiltration classes." Naruto said in mock hurt.

"Aright Naruto I will trust this to you but if it gets too dangerous abort the mission." Kakashi said firmly.

"Got it Sensei." Naruto said as he vanished into the night without a trace.

"Be safe Naruto." Kakashi said to no one as Naruto had already left.

Kakashi then turned to head back to Tazuna's he had found Naruto and spoke to him and he knew this was the best course of action given the information he had learned. Kakashi only prayed that Naruto would make it home safely.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Naruto made her way out of the village in the direction of the Village Leader's compound following the directions given to her by the girl from the brothel. Naruto knew she only had one shot at this. If she blew this then she didn't know what would happen or if she would get another shot at getting rid of Gato. Naruto saw the compound in the distance and made her way to the tree line to hide and get a lay of the land and try to find a good point of entry.

Naruto surveyed the yard of the compound and took count of the number of guards. Naruto then moved to the back of the compound where she noticed there were fewer guards in the back than the front meaning she would use the back to gain entrance to the compound. Naruto also saw the main office of the compound and inside the office was a short chubby man with a cigar in his mouth with a stack of money in front of him. Naruto assumed this was Gato as she had never seen the man before but the way he was dressed and how he looked Naruto was sure this was the crime lord that plagued the people of Nami.

Naruto deftly ran from the treeline to the compound wall and ran up the side of it using her chakra to cling to the wall's surface. Once she reached the top she drew her tanto and deftly slit the guard's throat and kept moving using the cover of night to remain undetected. Racing across the lawn Naruto moved quickly using her speed and ninja training to remain undetected as she raced toward the main building.

Naruto reached the main building heading for the rear entrance which had two guards which Naruto threw two kunai at that lodge in each if the guards' throats severing their jugular veins causing them to bleed out. Once inside the compound Naruto slowed her pace though she still remained out of sight from any roaming patrols. Naruto knew this would be a bloody mission but she also knew it would save countless lives. Naruto knew that a ninja's life was often filled with bloodshed, it was a fact of life.

Naruto made her way up to the second level of the compound and moved toward the main office where she had seen Gato. Naruto took out a roaming guard and kept on her way. Her mission came first, she didn't have time to waste on the fact she was taking a number of lives she would deal with that later after her mission was finished. Naruto came to the main office where two more guards were standing guard. Naruto rushed them and slit each of their throats before they could make a sound.

Naruto calmly walked to the door of the main office and pushed the door open letting the body of one of the door guards to fall into the room. Two men with katanas stepped forward ready to attack the kunoichi but Naruto wasn't impressed.

"Gato I am here to end your reign over Nami." Naruto coldly said her tone even and lacked emotion.

"Kill this bitch." Gato said to his two bodyguards.

The two thugs rushed Naruto who deftly dodged their swings and brought her tanto up, slitting one of their throats and twisting out of the way of the second bodyguard and brought her tanto up and stabbed the man in the heart killing him. Gato saw his best two men killed with such ease he began two sweat he wasn't a fighter he paid others to do his dirty work for him.

"W-what do you want I'll pay you anything you want." Gato stammered.

"Your money doesn't interest me, only your death." Naruto said as she rushed the man and in one swift motion slit his throat severing both his windpipe and both jugular veins.

Naruto sighed as she sheathed her tanto however she couldn't relax just yet she still had to get out of the compound before anyone could catch her. Naruto heard a sound outside the door and hid behind the already open door to wait and see who came in.

As Naruto waited she heard someone curse seeing the dead bodies at the door. The voice walked through the door and cursed again seeing that Gato was also dead. Naruto no longer under the effects of her mission mindset was starting to feel nauseous from the scent of so much death around her, death she caused. Naruto studied the man who came in, he didn't look like a normal thug. She looked closer and saw he had a hitai-ate tied around his left upper arm with a slash through the village insignia, a missing nin.

Naruto remained still and silent. She wasn't sure if she could take on this missing nin she only hoped he didn't find her. The man walked over to Gato's desk where the man lay dead in his chair, the money still on the desk. The man then took out a scroll and sealed the money in the scroll and walked out.

"You won't be needing that anymore you over stuffed pig." the man said as he walked out.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief as she rushed over to the vault and opened it, seeing quite a bit of money. Naruto pulled out a number of scrolls and began to seal the money into them. She would do what was right and give it back to the village and the next village leader. Naruto also put one scroll aside with a good amount of money in it and that she put in her bag in a separate pocket in her bag so she would not to confuse it with the others as she was taking this scroll for her team to compensate for the extra danger that had been lied to them about.

Naruto then slipped out the window and made her way back into town.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Back at Tazuna's house Kakashi was reading his book with his other two students doing their own thing. Sakura was reading more on Medical Ninjutsu and Sasuke was trying to master the tree climbing exercise and was doing much better. Sasuke walked back inside after he had used his chakra reserves and talked to Kakashi.

"Where is the dobe?" Sasuke asked the older shinobi.

"Don't know, I couldn't find him." Kakashi said lying about where his last student was at.

Kakashi knew the best thing for Naruto right now was to trust in his skills and pray that what few skills he had was enough.

Just then the door opened to reveal one Uzumaki Naruto who looked serious and was covered in blood.

Sakura was the first to react.

"Naruto are you alright what happened to you?" Sakura asked.

"I killed Gato and a number of his hired thugs." Naruto said his tone lacked it's normal carefree nature.

"Did you get hurt?" Sakura asked her teammate.

"No, the blood is all theirs, they weren't trained to fight shinobi." Naruto explained as he walked past Sakura heading for the stairs. "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to take a shower and get into some clean clothes."

"Naruto, we should talk." Kakashi said to his blonde student.

"Ok Sensei." Naruto said as he walked up the stairs to the guest room they were all sharing and grabbed a spare set of clothes and went into the bathroom.

Naruto went into the bathroom and shut the door behind her and locked it, she wanted to be alone for a while. Naruto took off her blood stained jacket then the bottoms of her bodysuit then the top revealing her bandages which she began to unwrap and finally she took off her panties revealing the beautiful girl she truly was even with her hair cropped short she was still beautiful but she understood why her Jiji wanted her to hide her gender while everyone believed the Kyubi was dead her birthday was still a touchy subject with the villagers and some saw her as the demon reborn, though they never attacked her.

Naruto stepped into the shower and turned the water on. She adjusted the temperature to a comfortable level and began to wash her body which was covered in blood the same blood she spilled not even an hour before. Once Naurto got the blood off her body she sat down in the shower and pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees putting her forehead against her arms and began to cry.

Kakashi knew that when a shinobi took a life it was hard on them and Naruto had not just taken one life she took several lives. Kakashi walked up the stairs and stopped outside the bathroom he was about to knock when he heard Naruto crying and he decided to let be for the time being she would come to him when she was ready.

After the water began to get cold Naruto was still seated in the shower letting the cold water run over her body she had no more tears left to give so she turned the water off and climbed out of the shower. Naruto got dressed first wrapping her chest, she was a large c cup but the wraps flattened them making her look like a boy. Naruto then put on her bodysuit and jacket and gathered her stained jacket and bodysuit and went downstairs and walked outside and began to clean her bodysuit and jacket she knew she wouldn't be able to completely remove the blood from her clothes but she was able to get most of it out and the blood stain faded to where it wasn't as noticable.

Kakashi walked out of the house and walked over to Naruto who was cleaning his clothes.

"Naruto we need to talk." Kakashi said to his young blonde student.

"So talk." the blonde said not bothering to hide her true voice no one was within earshot and she just didn't have the energy to care if anyone heard her real voice.

"I know it's hard when you take a life. When you take a life no matter who it is you feel it it takes a toll on you. It makes you question who you are and if you did the right thing in killing that person." Kakashi said. "I can't answer the part about if it changes who you are but I can tell you that killing those men who were working for Gato you did the right thing and you put an end to them so they wouldn't harm another innocent life again."

"Sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Yes Naruto?" Kakashi replied.

"Am I really just the Kyuubi reborn?" Naruto asked her sensei.

"No you are not, you are Uzumaki Naruto Kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf Village. What you did in killing those men doesn't make you a monster. And the fact that you feel bad for killing those men proves that you are still human as long as you don't enjoy killing people you will never be a monster." Kakashi said comforting the young blonde.

"Thanks Sensei." Naruto said as she pulled her clothes from the water having gotten most of the blood out.

"Now go get some sleep we still have to worry about Zabuza and his helper." Kakashi told his blonde student.

Naruto didn't respond. She just rose up and walked over to the clothes line and hung her clothes up to dry through the night and walked into the house to get some sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune **

Chapter 07

Naruto and the members of team seven were sitting around the dinner table with Tazuna and his family Tsunami and Inari.

"Why do you try so hard you're just doing to die no one can beat Gato." spoke the young Inari.

"Look Kozo Gato is dead. I killed him myself." Naruto said annoyed she was still dealing with the fact she actually took the lives of Gato and his thugs but this brat was just making her angry.

"Why do you even care? It's not like you understand what it's like to suffer!" Inari yelled.

"We don't know what it's like to suffer? Kozo we know plenty about suffering. You have a mother who loves you and worries about you. A grandfather who risked his life to give you a better life. Me on the other hand I'm an orphan. Both my parents died the night I was born. My mother died in childbirth and my father died fighting the Kyubi. All my life I've had to put up with people ignoring my existence, calling me a demon, even denying me service. And it gets worse on my birthday because my birthday is the same day as the Kyubi attack. So don't tell me I don't know suffering." Naruto explained as she rose from the table and went outside slamming the door of the house.

"Is all that true sensei?" Sakura asked Kakashi.

"It is. While none of the villagers openly attack Naruto they make it known that she is not welcome in Konoha. The Shinobi don't do anything to her but the civilians do not understand that the Kyubi died with the Fourth Hokage. They see Naruto as a reminder of those they lost and believe Naruto is the demon reborn." Kakashi explained to his pink haired student.

Sasuke said nothing he knew how much being alone hurt but he also knew that he was held in higher regard by most people because he was an Uchiha someone important. The Dobe was just a clanless orphan.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Naruto woke up outside in the forest she had spent all night fighting her clones trying to clear her head. She sensed a presence which caused her to sit up.

"Oh you're awake. You'll catch a cold sleeping outside." a voice said.

"I guess though I've never been sick a day in my life." Naruto said looking at the owner of the voice.

To Naruto's surprise the voice belonged to a beautiful girl with long black hair and dark eyes.

"Wow you're really pretty." Naruto said.

"Thank you." the girl said. "You are rather pretty yourself."

Naruto blushed. She had never been complimented before though she was still looking like a boy at the moment and her voice masked with her male voice.

"Thank you." Naruto said. "What are you doing?"

"I am gathering herbs. A friend of mine is sick and these herbs have very good medicinal purposes." the girl said. "Why are you out here?"

"I passed out training while trying to clear my head. I was pretty angry about something and I needed to clear my head before I did something stupid." Naruto explained.

"You are bothered by something, what is it?" the girl asked.

"I'm a ninja and I was on a mission here. Well I learned some things about what was plaguing the village and well I put an end to them. I killed the man responsible for the Nami's current state of welfare. But the killing affected me more than I thought it would." Naruto explained.

"I see. Yes taking a life can affect the one doing the killing. But you stopped a dangerous man so you did something good even though you were forced to kill you still protected others. I believe a person is truly strong when they have something to protect." the girl said.

"Yea my Jiji has a similar philosophy he calls it the Will of Fire. Basically the whole village is a family and the hokage is the head of that family and must protect that family from all threats. I saw a threat to Nami so I removed the threat by killing Gato and his men." Naruto explained to the girl.

"That is very noble of you. To protect those that are not of your home I believe you will be truly strong one day and protect those important to you." the girl said.

"Thanks I want to protect all my precious people. I don't want any of them to come to harm" Nauro said softly.

"Well I must be going." the girl said standing up ready to leave. "Oh my name is Haku and I'm a boy."

"What? But you're prettier than Sakura." Naruto exclaimed.

Haku said nothing and just walked off.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Haku arrived back at his and Zabuza's hide out. It seems as though they will not be getting paid after all and the mission is no longer valid since Gato has been killed, Zabuza is not going to like this.

"Zabuza-sama I have returned." Haku said to his master.

"Bout time Haku what kept you?" Zabuza asked annoyance in his voice.

"I was talking to one of the Konoha Shinobi. I learned some valuable information. The Ninja I spoke to informed me that they killed Gato. I know we had planned to do that ourselves after we got our money but it seems as though Konoha beat us to him." Haku explained.

"So Konoha isn't as weak as I thought. It would seem our pay will not be coming from this mission it would seem as though we have no reason to stay once I am mobile again we will leave Nami and try and find a way to earn more money." Zabuza said.

"Yes Zabuza-sama." Haku said.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

At the end of the week word had spread that Gato was dead and the people of Nami were beginning to come out of their homes no longer fearing a mugging or beat down from one of Gato's men. The Brothel had also closed down as the women were no longer working to pay off debts for their families. Life was beginning to return to Nami and it was all thanks to Naruto.

Three weeks after Gato's death the bridge was completed with the help of all the villagers and Naruto's shadow clones, they made quick work on the bridge. Once the bridge was complete Team seven was ready to head home. Team Seven lucked out though as Zabuza never attacked a second time much to team seven's relief.

Once the team was back in Konoha Kakashi dismissed his team except for Naruto who Kakashi had stay with him to report to the Hokage. Kakashi and Naruto made their way to the tower in relative silence neither one quite sure what to say to each other. Upon arrival at the tower the two went up to the Hokage's office and knocked on the door. After hearing an enter, the two shinobi walked into the Hokage's Office.

"Ah Kakashi, you're back from your mission and you brought Naruto with you to report. I take it that something unexpected happened?" Hiruzen asked.

"Yes Something did happen. I'll start with my report then I will let Naruto give his." Kakashi said

Kakashi gave his report while Hiruzen listened as Kakashi detailed the team's encounter with Zabuza and how he was taken away by a false hunter nin. Then Kakashi detailed the training he gave each of his students to prepare them for the next encounter with the missing nin. However the young Inari said something that pissed Naruto off making the young teen go off on his own.

"I take it this is where Naruto gives his report?" Hiruzen asked.

"Hai Hokage-sama." Kakashi said.

"Naruto report." Hiruzen ordered.

"After Inari said what he did, I needed to clear my head so I walked around the village and saw how they lived. It wasn't the best place to live. Then I saw a brothel an odd thing to have in such a small village. Using my henge I took the form of the Fourth Hokage without his hokage garb and walked into the brothel. I got some information from one of the working girls about Gato and the general state of life in Nami, what I learned pissed me off even more." Naruto said.

"What did you learn?" Hiruzen asked.

"Gato had taken over all trade in Nami however the trade company is just a front his real business is smuggling drugs, weapons, and even humans. I learned he had set up his main base in the leader's old compound. So I left the brothel before I could cancel my henge though Kakashi-sensei caught me so I told him what I learned and my plan. We didn't have time to cause a distraction so I set out on my own to use my skills as an infiltrator and assassin to enter the compound and kill Gato. To get into the compound though I had to kill his guards which was pretty easy since they were not trained as ninja. I killed many of his guards making my way to Gato. When I finally reached Gato he had his two bodyguards try and attack me they failed. Gato then tried to bribe me but I didn't want his money I wanted him to die so with a single swipe with my tanto I killed the man and left." Naruto explained to the Hokage.

Hiruzen felt for the young teen his surrogate grandchild. "Naruto, do you want to talk to Inoichi? He is good at helping ninja deal with this kind of thing. He is a good therapist. Also Kakashi now that you know Naruto is really a girl I hope you realise that she has her reasons for hiding her gender. Do not tell anyone that she is hiding her gender she will reveal it when the time is right." Hiruzen said.

"I'll talk to him Jiji. I could use someone to talk to other than Kakashi-sensei." Naruto agreed.

"I'll set it up with him for now you and your team have the week off. It's mandatory to have a week of down time after a long mission like this. Take some time and relax, that means no training either." Hiruzen said to the young blonde.

"Got it Jiji."

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

During the week of down time Naruto did in fact talk to Inoichi and resolved her doubts about killing Gato. Inoichi was a good man and very professional about his job. Naruto learned that not only was Inoichi a therapist but also one of the top three interrogators in Konoha's T&I Department. Naruto also spent some time with Ino though Ino also had her team training and missions to go on so they didn't get to spend much time together. Ino seemed surprised that Naruto had gone on a c rank mission that turned for the worse but Ino was respectful and didn't pry or push Naruto for information.

Now the week was over and it was back to training and missions. The members of team seven were at their usual training ground Sasuke and Naruto were sparring while Sakura was practicing her medical ninjutsu. Kakashi was as usual reading his book. A hawk flew overhead of team seven in a certain pattern, a pattern Kakashi recognized.

'_That time already? I wonder if they are ready.'_ Kakashi thought to himself before speaking aloud. "Alright that's enough for the day I have something to take care of you're dismissed for the day."

"But we didn't do any missions today?" Sakura said, noting the unusual dismissal.

"I know Sakura but something has come up that I have to take care of." Kakashi explained vaguely.

With nothing else being said Kakashi left in a swirl of leaves a classic Konoha Shunshin.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

In a large room in the Hokage Tower the Hokage was seated behind a large desk and before him were a number of jonin each in charge of a genin team.

"I assume you all know why I called you all here?" Hiruzne asked the gathered jonin.

There was a collecting hai indicating that everyone knew why they had been summoned.

"Good then I won't waste any time explaining it. As you all know it is time for the Chunin Exams are upon us this time they are being held here in Konoha." Hiruzen explained.

"How long until the exams?" Kakashi asked.

"Two weeks time that will allow those from other villages to arrive." Hiruzen replied. "Now what I need from each of you is who plans to enter their teams into the exams."

It was quiet at first before several jonin stepped forward to enter their teams then it fell quiet again.

"Anyone else?" Hiruzen asked.

Kakashi stepped forward. "I Hatake Kakashi jonin of Team Seven consisting of Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto do hereby nominate Team Seven for the chunin exams."

Just then Iruka rose from his seat. "What no they are still rookies they'll be killed."

"Iruka they are no longer your students, they are soldiers under my command and I have spent the last several months training them and doing missions with them. I would know them better than you at this point." Kakashi explained to the worried Iruka.

"Kakashi has a point Iruka you can't let your personal feelings get in the way of sound judgement. If Kakashi believes them ready then we have to trust his judgement." Hiruzen explained. "Any other nominations?"

"I Yuhi Kurenai of Team Eight consisting of Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba do nominate Team Eight for the Chunin Exams." Kurenai said

"I Maito Gai of Team Nine consisting of Hyuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten do hereby nominate Team Nine for the Chunin Exams." Gai said.

"I Sarutobi Asuma hereby nominate Team Ten consisting of Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino for the Chunin Exams." Asuma said.

"If that is all then I call this meeting dismissed." Hiruzen said rising from the desk and walking back to his office.


	8. Chapter 8

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune **

Chapter 08

Naruto was walking down the streets of Konoha enjoying some down time since her team had the day off. Naruto entered a building that was painted purple with big green letters painted on a sign above the door 'Yamanaka Flowers'. Naruto chose this building in hopes one of her friends was working there today and Naruto was rewarded with the voice of her friend Ino Yamanaka.

"Welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, how can I help you?" the young platinum blonde asked. "Oh Naruto how are you what brings you here?"

"I came to see if you had some free time and would be interested in joining me for a meal between friends." Naruto spoke using her male voice.

"Sure just let me go tell my dad and I'll be right there." Ino said as she ran out the back door which led to the Yamanaka clan lands.

After a short while Ino came with a clansman ready to go.

"Ok Naruto I'm ready and we better not be going to Ichiraku's." Ino said in her usually bossy tone.

Naruto let out a chuckle and walked out the front door with Ino leaving the clansman behind to tend to the store.

"Don't worry Ino we're not going to Ichiraku's while it's one of my favorite places to eat. It's not for everyone and it's not good to eat there all the time." Naruto explained.

"So where are we going then?" Ino asked.

Naruto didn't answer, instead just started walking, leading Ino to their destination. Once the two arrived at their destination Ino saw they were at the Yakiniku Q, a place Ino knew well since her team went there quite often and it was a good place for a meal between friends and not a date.

"Wow Naruto I didn't think you liked Yakiniku Q." Ino teased.

"Contrary to popular belief I do eat things besides Ramen." Naruto defended himself.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

The next day Naruto was once again walking the streets of Konoha minding her own business when she heard a commotion. Deciding to investigate she rounded the corner and saw a taller male holding a kid with brown hair and a blue scarf around his neck, Naruto sighed.

"Hey Cat boy drop the kid." Naruto called out in her male voice.

"No way this kid bumped into me so I'm going to teach him a lesson." the older male said.

"I said I was sorry." the kid said.

The kid was Konohamaru the grandson of the reigning Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen and adoptive little brother to one Uzumaki Naruto, a right bitch when pissed off.

"That kid you're about to teach a lesson to just so happens to be the Hokage's Grandson and my Otouto so I'm going to give you three seconds to put him down before I make you put him down." Naruto spoke firmly, the promise of pain in her male voice.

"Kankuro you're a disgrace to our village." came a new voice, a voice that sent chills down Naruto's spine.

"G-Gaara but they started it." the one now known to be Kankuro stammered.

"Kankuro shut up before I kill you." the one called Gaara said coldly.

"Right sorry Gaara it won't happen again." Kankuro said dropping Konohamaru.

Konohamaru ran over to Naruto and hid behind her leg. Where his two friends Udon and Moegi joined him.

"I warned you not to piss of Gaara." the female from Suna said as she used her fan to hit Kankuro over the head.

The three genin from Suna began to walk away as Gaara led them away from Naruto, Sakura and the three kids. Gaara stopped and turned back to face Naruto.

"You what's your name?" Gaara asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto said firmly.

"I am Sabaku no Gaara." Gaara said. "You are strong Uzumaki and I will give Mother your blood."

"Wait why are you even here? Shinobi from other villages aren't allowed to enter another hidden village with our permission." Sakura asked.

"Really you have to ask?" the blonde female from Suna asked. "We have permission." the kunoichi said holding up a pass. "We're here for the Chunin Exams."

"The Chunin exams?" Sakura asked.

"Are you really that dumb?" the kunoichi asked.

"The Chunin Exams are a chance to be promoted to the Rank of Chunin." Naruto explained.

"Oh." was all Sakura said.

"Hey Boss can we go play ninja now you promised you'd teach us something cool." Konohamaru asked.

"Sure Kono-kun." Nauto said.

"What kind of Shinobi plays ninja?" Sakura asked condescendingly toward Naruto.

"I'm not playing ninja, they are. I play the role of their Jonin sensei and teach them things. I don't teach them anything too hard, just stuff they should be learning in the academy but they like it and it's nice to have someone looking to me for answers." Naruto explained

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Come Thursday the members of Team Seven were in their usual meeting place when Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Yo." Kakashi said raising one hand in a waving manner.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said.

"I assume you three have been hearing about the Chunin Exams that are coming up shortly?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes actually we have heard about them." Naruto replied.

"Good then it saves me time as i don't need to explain what they are." Kakashi said in his usual bored tone. "Here you will need these to enter the exams." Kakashi said as he handed Team Seven three pieces of paper. "Fill those out and take them to the third floor of the Academy on Friday at One P.M, that is if you want to participate if you don't think you're ready then don't come."

"Sweet." Naruto exclaimed.

"Hn." was all Sasuke said.

"Are you sure we're ready?" Sakura asked her doubt clear in her voice.

"Like sensei said if you're not ready don't come." Naruto said.

"I would not have given you the forms if I didn't think you were ready Sakura." Kakashi said.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Come Friday at about twelve thirty Naruto arrived at the academy ready for the exams. Naruto saw her two teammates Sakura and Sasuke waiting for her.

"Hey guys." Naruto called out using her male voice she couldn't wait until she could stop hiding her gender but she understood the reasons why she had to.

"Hn." was the Uchiha's reply.

"Hey Naruto. I should have known you wouldn't pass this up." Sakura said with a small smile.

"You know it. Now come on let's show them who the best team in Konoha is." Naruto said.

As Team Seven entered the academy and made their way to the third floor they were stopped on the second floor by a large crowd of people trying to get past two people who were standing before a room that said Three Zero One. Naruto scoffed, she may not be the best at genjutsu but this one was just pathetic, however before she could say anything Sasuke was already walking up to the guards.

"You may as well drop the Genjutsu. It's pathetic no real shinobi would fall for such a thing." Sasuke told the guards.

"It does a good enough job at keeping this lot here but by all means go on ahead if you're so sure this isn't the real room." one of the guards said.

"So I was right about you Uchiha Sasuke. You are a true genius. Please fight me and allow me the chance to prove that a genius of hard work can beat a natural genius." a voice said.

Naruto knew the voice, it belonged to one of her friends from her previous year at the academy, one Rock Lee.

"Lee?" Naruto asked.

"Naruto-kun?" Lee asked in surprise.

"Lee-kun it is you, what's with the green spandex and the bowl cut you didn't have any of that when you were in the academy." Naruto asked as she embraced the green clad boy still using her male voice.

"Hello Naruto-san." spoke another familiar voice to the blonde.

"Hey Neji-kun." Naruto said to the Hyuga.

"Don't dismiss me for the dobe." Sasuke demanded.

"Naruto is not a dobe. He had better grades than Lee and Neji in fact there was no way Naruto should not have graduated last year with us." came the voice of a female.

"Tenten-chan," Naruto exclaimed hugging the bun haired girl.

"Hey Naruto-kun." Tenten said returning the hug.

"Wow Naruto, how many people do you know from the class before us?" Sakura asked.

"I knew practically the whole class but Neji, Lee, and Tenten were my friends during that year." Naruto explained.

"Now Lee I get you want to fight Sasuke-teme but do you think we have time? The first exam is supposed to start soon." Naruto said concern in her male voice.

"You bring up a good point Naruto-kun. So be it I will wait until after the exams to get my spar with your teammate." Lee said."

"Dobe what is your deal why won't you let me fight him?" Sasuke demanded.

"One, we don't have the time. Two, Lee can easily kick your ass. And Lastly I don't know the rules of these exams and I don't want to be disqualified for breaking them before the exam even starts." Naruto explained. "Now let's get upstairs."

"Whatever dobe." Sasuke said irritated that he was robbed of a fight with a potentially strong opponent.

Once upstairs team seven saw their sensei leaning against the wall reading his orange book.

"Ah you three made it. Congratulations on passing the first test of these exams." Kakashi said without even looking up from his book.

"The first test?" Sakura asked confused by her sensei's words.

"Yes, the first test. You see only a full team can enter these exams so had one of you not come the ones that did would not be allowed to participate. I withheld this information from you as I did not want anyone to pressure the others into the exams. I want you all to come of your own will." Kakashi explained.

"Oh." was all Sakura could say.

"Well now that you are all here might as well go inside and get ready for the exam." Kakashi said as he began to walk away.

Naruto walked into the room before them and took note of just how many people there were in the room. Naruto didn't get to dwell on that for long though as her musings were interrupted by none other than Yamanaka Ino who saw Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun." the platinum blonde yelled and clung to the Uchiha.

"Get off Sasuke-kun Ino-buta." Sakura yelled trying to get the platinum blonde off Sasuke.

Naruto sighed and tried to ignore her teammate and friend's actions.

"What a drag so you're here to this is going to be troublesome if you're participating." Shikamaru said with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey Shikamaru been a while haven't seen you all that much since we got our teams." Naruto said her hands behind her head.

"Yahoo! The gangs all here." a voice yelled.

The voice belonged to none other than Inuzuka Kiba, a boy with brown hair and red fang like tattoos on his cheeks.

"You lot are rather loud aren't you?" came a new voice.

The voice belonged to an older boy with silver hair wearing glasses.

"Who are you four-eyes?" Kiba asked.

"My name is Yakushi Kabuto and I must say that you will draw a lot of unwanted attention to yourselves with how loud you're being. Then again you are probably just rookies and have never attended these exams before." Kabuto concluded.

"We might be rookies and we may not have been to these exams before but who is to say that we aren't ready to be Chunin." Naruto said.

"I have something that may help you in that regard then." Kabuto said as he pulled out a deck of cards. "These cards have information on just about everyone participating in these exams."

"I want information on Rock Lee and Sabaku no Gaara." came Sasuke's voice.

Naruto knew Sasuke had met Lee before the exam started, but when did the Uchiha meet Gaara?"

"You know their names, that's no fun." Kabuto said as he pulled two cards from his deck. "Let's see Rock Lee one year older than you on a team with Hyuga Neji and Tenten. He has extraordinary taijutsu skills but has no ninjutsu or genjutsu skills. He has an average mission record, nothing really standing out."

"What about Sabaku no Gaara?" Sasuke asked.

"Sabaku no Gaara, Son of the Reigning Kazekage no information on his taijutsu or genjutsu skills but has excellent ninjutsu skills suspected to possess the Jiton, though it's not confirmed. His mission record is average with the exception of a single b rank mission in which Gaara didn't sustain a single injury, in fact he has never received an injury on any of his missions." Kabuto explained.

From the corner of Naruto's eye she saw another genin wearing a yellow shirt rushing Kabuto.

"You're cards are forgetting one thing, four-eyes!" the boy yelled as he reared his fist back ready to attack.

"And what's that?" Kabuto asked.

"Otogakure and the team that will ace these exams." the boy said as he threw a punch aimed at Kabuto who had easily dodged the attack only for an unseen force to cause kabuto to drop to his knees and crack his glasses.

Just then a large explosion of smoke filled the room.

"Alright maggots settle down!" a voice boomed.

Naruto turned to the direction of the voice and saw none other than Morino Ibiki, the head of the T&I branch of Konoha's Anbu forces.

"There will be no fighting during the Chunin Exams without express permission from the proctors. Or do you want to get disqualified before the exams even begin?" Ibiki said with a smirk that promised he meant his words. "You all will be given a number, this will be your assigned seat for the first portion of the exams. Now come forward one at a time and get your number."

As each genin came forward they were given a small white plastic card with black number on it. Once all the numbers had been given out and the genin all seated Ibiki was in the front of the room with a stack of papers beside him on the desk. He had one of his Chunin assistants begin passing out the papers.

"Now the first part of the Exams is a written test. You will have one hour to complete the test. The last question will be revealed forty-five minutes after the start of the exam." Ibiki began to explain.

Naruto was looking around the room seeing where everyone was seated. She knew something was off about the seating arrangement but she couldn't quite place it, that and Hinata was seated right beside her. Don't get Naruto wrong the girl was friendly enough but she was as timid as a mouse and was always fainting when Naruto got close to the girl for a simple conversation.

"Now it's time to explain the rules there will be no questions until the end so pay attention. First each person starts with ten points, each question is worth one point, get them all wrong and you fail. Secondly if you get caught cheating you will lose two points, meaning you get caught five times you also fail. Thirdly the points for each team are tied together meaning if one persona fails the whole team fails." Ibiki further explained the rules of the exam.

Naruto was listening to the rules and the more she thought about the rules the more it said that they were expected to cheat. When Naruto looked at her test she understood why they were allowed to cheat. The test was impossible for a genin to answer. However if one knew where to look then they could steal the answers. But how was Naruto going to? She wasn't as smart as Sakura who could probably answer all the questions without cheating nor did she have a special dojutsu that could look through things or copy pencil strokes, so what could she do?

"Your exam starts now." Ibiki said at the top of the hour.

Naruto looked around the room taking note of how others were going about getting the information needed to pass the test. As expected Sasuke was using his Sharingan to coby the pencil strokes of another examinee, Neji was using his Byakugan to see the answers from another student, Tenten was using the metal around a ceiling light as a mirror to get the answers, Kiba was using Akamaru, and Shino was using his bugs. Naruto looked to Hinata who had already completed her test presumably by using her Byakugan like Neji had done and Hinata had her test in a way that Naruto could copy her answers if the blonde so chose.

"It's ok Naruto-kun you can copy off my test." the Hyuga heiress said timidly.

Naruto was tempted to accept the offer however Hinata wasn't exactly hiding it and Naruto was sure she would get caught if she chose to copy Hinata, no Naruto had to acquire the answers on her own but how?

"Alright you maggots pencils down!." Ibiki called out.

Naruto was pulled from her thoughts at the order and looked at the clock. Sure enough exactly forty-five minutes passed and Naruto had not answered a single question of the exam.

"Alright you lot it's time for a few more rules. Firstly you have a choice on where or not you want to take this question. If you choose not to take the question you and your team fail and you are allowed to leave and try the chunin exams next time. Secondly if you choose to answer the question but answer incorrectly you fail the exam with your team and you are barred from ever participating in the Chunin Exams ever again." Ibiki said with a smirk on his face.

"What? That's ridiculous there are people here who have taken the exam multiple times." a random genin yelled.

"Tough luck you were unfortunate to have me as the proctor this time around." Ibiki said. "Now who ever doesn't want to take the final question please leave now."

A number of genin stood up and exited the room while Naruto was having a personal crisis. She didn't want to be the reason her team failed but on the other hand she didn't want to just give up either to her quitting was something that she couldn't bring herself to do.

"No I won't quit no matter if I remain a genin forever I will not quit or go back on my word!" Naruto shouted as she slammed her hand down on her table.

"Bold statement, let's see if you can back it up." Ibiki said as he waited for any other genin to leave.

When no other genin left Ibiki smiled.

"To those of you who stayed I have one thing to say, congratulations you passed the first phase of the chunin exams." Ibiki said to the remaining genin.

"What? What about the tenth questions?" Temari asked.

"There never was one. Or you could say the choice on whether to take the question or not was the question." Ibiki said.

"Then what about the other nine questions?" Temari questioned.

"They served their purpose." Ibiki said.

Just as Ibiki finished talking a window shattered as a black cloth came through.


	9. Chapter 9

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune **

Chapter 09

Training Ground Forty-four better known to the shinobi of Konoha as The Forest of Death. It was here where the collected genin hoping to get promoted gathered. Mitarashi Anko, the proctor for the second phase of the exam could be seen standing before the gathered genin.

"Alright you maggots listen up." Anko called loudly. "This here is Training Ground Forty-Four, or as we like to call it the Forest of Death. This is where you will take the second phase of the Exam, it will be a survival mission. However you will have a secondary objective." Anko held up two scrolls. "Your second objective is to collect two scrolls, one Heaven and one Earth. Without both scrolls you cannot pass this phase of the exams. There are no rules on how you obtain your scrolls so you will have to sign a waiver that relieves Konoha for any death or injury you receive during this exam. Now for the rules of this exam. Rule One, You cannot open your scroll in the forest."

'Why not?" a genin asked.

"If you're that curious by all means open the scroll." Anko said with a smirk. "Rule Two you must complete this exams with your full team so if one of your teammates dies in the forest you won't be allowed to continue to the third exam."

"What, that's ridiculous people die on missions all the time and still get the job done." another genin outburst.

"This is true however these exams are to test you as a team and as individuals so if you want to pass this exam then you finish the exam as a team." Anko replied to the outburst.

There were a few complaints among the gathered genin but no one outright questioned Anko out of fear of being disqualified.

"Now then you have a total of five days to reach the center of the forest where you will find a Tower exactly Five Kilometers from every direction. The forest has a ten kilometer radius and remember it's not just the other genin you have to watch out for this forest is home to many dangers." Anko said cryptically.

"What about food?" came the voice of none other than Akimichi Choji.

"There is plenty of food in the forest providing you know how to avoid the poisonous plants and animals and the other hunters of the forest." Anko said with a smirk on her face. "Now sign your waiver and collect your scroll."

With that Anko had the chunin assistants hand out the waivers. The genin were then instructed to turn their waivers in at a closed off tent to receive their scrolls and go to one of the many entry gates which were kept locked until someone unlocked them from the command tower that controls the gates.

_With Team Seven_

"Alright we have the Heaven Scroll that means we need an Earth Scroll to pass the exam, I would rather not fight anyone from Konoha unless we have no other choice. However if we have to fight another Konoha team we can't hold back we have to show them we deserve to be here especially since we are rookies." Naruto said using her male voice.

"What if we face a team not from Konoha?" Sakura questioned.

"Then we show them we belong here just as much as they do no matter what we can't show any weakness. If we show weakness to someone outside of Konoha the Shinobi of Konoha won't show us respect. Even if we fail this exam we do it on our terms not someone else's." Naruto said.

_With Team Dosu_

"We have our orders from Lord Orochimaru. We are to kill Uchiha Sasuke, and while not a part of our mission I think killing his blonde teammate would be a good idea so he doesn't cause problems for Lord Orochimaru in the future." Dosu said to his two teammates.

"Why would some no name kid cause problems for Lord Orochimaru?" Kin asked.

"He gives me an uneasy feeling like he is more dangerous than what we know about him." Dosu explained. "That and we would have to kill him anyway, I doubt Sasuke's team will just sit by and let us kill their comrade."

_With Team Nine_

"With so many in this exam I wonder how Naruto will fare with his team. It doesn't seem like they like him much." Tenten said worriedly.

"Naruto would have to be killed in order to fail this exam even with teammates like his. I am sure he would get them to work with him to accomplish his goal, though I do agree with your assessment, his team seems to work against him more than work with him." Neji explained.

"Naruto is in his prime in his Springtime of Youth there is no reason i can see Naruto failing even with such unyouthful teammates like Sasuke and Sakura." chimed in Lee.

_Back with Team Seven_

Naruto and her team were waiting for the exam to start. They had done their planning now all they had to do was execute their plan and make it to the Tower. Sasuke demanded that he be the one to carry the scroll and Naruto didn't feel like arguing over who carried the scroll so she just let him have it. Sakura was to be their support using her medical ninjutsu to help heal them after fights though they wanted to keep the number of fights to a minimum.

Naruto was the best tracker on the team, having spent many years hunting for food one tended to learn how to track in the wilderness. With Naruto being the best tracker on the team she took point with Sakura in the middle and Sasuke taking up the rear of the formation. The reason Sasuke was in the rear was simple, he was a fighter not a support like Sakura so he could handle an enemy shinobi that tried to ambush the team from the rear.

Just then the loudspeaker came to life with Anko's voice. "Alright maggots it's time for the second phase of the Chunin Exams to start. You have five days to complete your objectives starting now, good luck." with that the gates surrounding the forest opened letting the genin enter the forest for the worst survival mission of their lives.

Needing no further encouragement Team seven was off using their speed to move quickly through the trees. Naruto and her team took to the branches jumping from one branch to the next with little effort it was natural to them like it was to any leaf shinobi. Naruto was leading them to the tower knowing they would be a target for their status as rookies. She knew they needed to control the battles which meant they needed to set their own ambush and plan around the plans of enemy shinobi.

_With Team Eight_

"Trust me guys I can smell another group just up ahead. This will be our chance to get a scroll and be the first ones to the Tower." Kiba said excited for the chance at a battle.

After a short bit of travel they came to a clearing and stayed hidden before them were two teams of genin. One team from Amegakure and the other Team was the Sand siblings from Suna. Akamaru started to tremble in Kiba's coat not wanting to fight.

In the clearing stood Gaara with a serious look on his face a look that promised pain and death.

"So you like to force yourselves on women using them before throwing them away?" Gaara asked, not really looking for an answer.

"So what if I do." the leader of the Ame ninja said.

"Women are not play things they should be respected for they are the givers of life as for you, you're trash and like all trash you must be dealt with." Gaara said

The leader of the Ame team threw his umbrellas into the air making them spin. "Jouro Senbon!" the man yelled as thousands of needles began to shoot out of the umbrellas.

Gaara was not impressed at the display as his sand protected him from the shower of senbon.

"You made it rain needles. Now it's my turn and I'll make it rain blood." Gaara said as he thrust his arm forward.

As Gaara thrust his hand forward the sand that had been protecting him rushed forward capturing all three of the Ame nin in a single motion. Gaara then raised his hand raising the sand into the air then without any mercy or remorse crushed the three ninja making their blood gush everywhere.

"Did you have to make it rain blood literally?" Kankuro asked his younger brother.

"Yes." was all Gaara said as he walked over and picked up a scroll. "Lets go we can go to the tower now."

The members of team eight saw the whole thing transpire and they were all scared from the display of cruelty that Gaara displayed.

"Let's go, we need to keep going and stay clear of that guy." Kiba said, his voice trembling.

_With Team Nine_

"Well that was fun." came the voice of Hyuga Neji.

"It was indeed very youthful." agreed Rock Lee.

"Too bad they had the same scroll as us but at least we know that we can trade this scroll for the one we need." Tenten commented trying not to ruin the moment.

"Let's keep going, we can't sit idle for too long." Neji ordered.

_Back with Team Seven_

Night had fallen and team seven were eating MREs while remaining vigilant making sure not to let their guard down. It was still too early to sleep but the members of team seven had set up camp and were waiting for morning to come. Sasuke had first watch followed by Naruto and finally Sakura, the latter demanding she take last watch as she needed uninterrupted sleep to keep her good looks. Naruto didn't bother arguing, she knew that she had to maintain her appearance of being a male hopefully once she made chunin she could reveal herself but she had to get there first and she was still aways from being chunin.

The night went without incident and one the sun had risen team seven were off again it was the second day of the second phase of the chunin exams and with each day that passed that reduced the number of chances they had to pass this phase and Naruto didn't want to fail. Just then a strong gust of wind blew through the trees launching Naruto away from her team through the trees which somehow she missed each one. Naruto hit a tree trunk hard and landed on a branch below her.

"Ow." Naruto groaned her real voice coming through for once.

However her only reply was the hissing of a giant snake which Launched itself at Naruto trying to eat her. Naruto rolled to one side onto her back then flipped onto her feet.

"Fuck me." Naruto cursed as she took in the size of the snake.

Naruto instantly began to run through the hand seals needed for her strongest jutsu, a gift from the mission to Nami.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!" Naruto called out.

A large serpentine dragon erupted from a nearby water source and hit the snake in full force severing the head off the snake. The snake's body went limp and fell to the forest floor.

"Kami I hate snakes." Naruto said. As she began to rush back toward her team.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

With Sasuke and Sakura the two remaining members of team seven were staring at a ninja from Kusagakure who had a sinister smirk on his face.

"Well if it isn't Uchiha Sasuke I've been dying to meet you Sasuke-kun." the Kusa nin said darkly.

"You're the one that caused that wind." Sakura stated in fear.

"I couldn't risk your teammate interfering with my plans for Sasuke-kun." the kusa nin said with a dark chuckle.

Both Sasuke and Sakura were frozen in fear something was very wrong with this ninja.

"Now Sasuke-kun I have great aspirations for you. I can give you the power you seek to kill your traitorous brother." The kusa nin said his killer intent was so vile and strong it kept Sasuke rooted in fear.

Sasuke forced his hands into a hand seal and took a deep breath.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled, sending a large fireball at the kusa nin.

The Kusa nin just stood there letting the attack hit him and let out a sinister chuckle as he did.

"Yes Sasuke-kun show me your power." The kusa nin said emerging from the fire virtually unscathed.

Seeing their enemy unscathed made the two go wide-eyed and take a subconscious step away from the man.

"Yes you see it now don't you you're in the presence of a real predator and you're scared as most prey are when faced with a predator they can't beat…" the kusa nina began to say but was sent backwards when the fist of a very pissed of Naruto connected with his cheek. "So my snake wasn't enough to kill you."

"S-Sasuke w-we need to leave we can't fight him." Sakura said, holding onto Sasuke's arm.

Naruto stood there clearly pissed off. "We can't turn our backs to him. The moment we turn our backs it's over."

"Such courage. You know when I look at you, you remind me of someone that hair those eyes. Yes that's who, you're Namikaze's brat aren't you?" the kusa nin asked

"I'm an orphan teme. My father died in the Kyubi attack. Besides the Yondaime never married nor had a kid. If i was his son I'm pretty sure I would have been told about that." Naruto said anger in her voice which was still surprisingly male sounding.

"If you say so Naruto-kun." the kusa nin said. "Seems I'll have to deal with you before I can get what I truly came for."

"I won't let you get to him." Naruto said firmly. "Orochimaru."

"So you were able to deduce who I was, you're very clever Naruto-kun." Orochimaru said. "It seems your teammates don't share your resolve, they have left you behind and fled."

Naruto looked around the clearing and sure enough she was alone, alone with Orochimaru.

"Cowards." Naruto whispered. "Fine then if they want to run and abandon me I will make sure that you can't get to them."

"Such brave words Naruto-kun." Orochimaru said, peeling off the face of the Kusa nin he was impersonating.

Naruto jumped back to get some distance between herself and Orochimaru and began to run through a series of hand seals. Orochimaru smirked at the blonde wanting to see what she could do.

"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled as a large serpentine dragon crashed into Orochimaru.

When the water dispersed the form of Orochimaru lay on the ground broken and battered, however Naruto wasn't convinced of his demise. Just then laughter could be heard before the broken body of Orochimauru stood up, the mouth opening wide and regurgitating a perfectly fine Orochimaru.

"That's just disgusting." Naruto said almost wanting to puke.

"You are very skilled but that's to be expected of his child." Orochimaru said, chuckling seemingly enjoying the fight. "You amuse me Naruto-kun."

Naruto didn't see anything funny about this battle and now that she knew Orochimaru could shake off any ninjutsu with his version of the Kawarimi she drew her tanto. Naruto rushed Orochimaru with her tanto as her opponent pulled out a kunai and blocked the younger blonde's attacks.

The two of them exchanged blows neither really doing much damage to the other. Naruto was seeing just how outclassed she was just by the simple fact Orochimaru was toying with her not even taking the fight seriously and laughing at her attempts to hit him. Naruto then jumped back and created a number of shadow clones to surround her enemy then each of the clones began to rush through the hand seals for the Suiryudan once again.

Orochimaru smirked, his young opponent was fighting with everything she had and he saw her create over ten clones to surround him and each clone going through the same hand seals all at the same time in perfect unison. Meanwhile while the clones were going through the hand seals the real Naruto reengaged Orochimaru in battle keeping the sanning too busy to worry about her clones. Orochiamru knew that with his attention split he couldn't defend against both the clones preparing to bombard him with a water jutsu and the young genin fighting him with a tanto.

In a split decision moment Orochimaru used his superior speed and skill drawing a sword from his throat and stabbed Naruto through the stomach piercing one of her lungs. Then in a single burst of speed Orochimaru dispelled the clones. When he stopped the clearing was cleared of all clones including the one he had run through the gut.

"So, that was a distraction very impressive so what's your plan Naruto-kun?" Orochimaru asked aloud, scanning the clearing for any sign of the young blonde.

Naruto was leaning against a tree trunk breathing heavily having been run through the gut she was trying to gather the strength to make an escape. However her whole body ached and protested any movement she made. Naruto knew this was a losing battle but she had to keep Orochimaru busy until help arrived, providing her clone made it to one of the Proctors. Naruto then rolled on instinct barely dodging the swipe of Orochimaru's sword as she rolled onto her feet still breathing heavily.

"I found you Naruto-kun. I knew you were still here hiding you're not like your teammates you won't abandon someone to save your own skin. However, how far does that loyalty extend? Does even your loyalty have a limit?" Orochimaru asked.

Naruto grit her teeth ready to fight again, a strange red chakra burning around her wound healing it.

"Ho ho so the Kyubi isn't dead it was sealed away by the Yondaime into his own son no less." Orochiamru said laughing aloud.

"The Kyubi is dead along with the Yondaime." Naruto said calmly as she gripped her tanto tighter, how dare Orochimaru mock the skills of her hero.

"You don't get it do you Naruto-kun?" Orochiamru asked. "You can't kill a biju as it is a being of pure chakra. The only thing you can do is seal it away. "I suspected Minato had sealed the beast away but I had no way of knowing for sure or who he sealed it into. For a while I suspected he sealed the beast in himself just before dying but this was improbable but I was driven from Konoha before I could begin my search for the new jinchuriki, but now I have my answer, Naruto Namikaze."

Naruto rushed Orochimaru, her tanto clashing with the Sword of Kusanagi. However Naruto's tanto was snapped in two by the blade and the Kusanagi cut a long diagonal cut across Naruto's body cutting through her jacket, top, and bandages making them fall from her body blood gushing from the wound making Naruto fall to one knee.

"So you're a girl can't say i'm surprised. However I am done playing with you Naruto-chan." Orochimaru said as Naruto fell to her side consciousness leaving her body. "You fought well young Namikaze."

With that Orochimaru left the young blonde in the middle of the forest leaving her for whatever beast finds her or if she would be so lucky, an ally to get her to safety.


	10. Chapter 10

**Naruto**

**Honor of a Kitsune **

Chapter 10

Sasuke and Sakura were running through the forest neither one willig to stop until they couldn't feel the weight of Orochimaru's killing intent. They had never felt such power, not even Zabauza's was as powerful as Orochimaru's killing intent. After a while the two stopped to catch their breath.

"What do we do Sasuke-kun we need a full team to complete the exam and pass?" Sakura asked her teammate.

"I'll make a genjutsu to make them think we still have Naruto." Sasuke said coldly.

"Will that work though I mean if we fail I don't know when we will get another chance to become Chunin. But what about Naruto? Do you think he is still alive?" Sakura asked, showing genuine concern for the teammate they had just abandoned to fight Orochimaru.

"The dobe is probably dead by now Orochimaru is a S Class criminal we would have been fools to fight him the fact that Naruto chose to fight is beyond stupid even for the dobe." Sasuke explained.

"What's this? Sasuke and his team? Wait where is the other one the blonde?" a voice asked.

Sasuke and Sakura turned around to find the genin team from Otogakure and a scowl formed on Sasuke's face.

"The dobe isn't with us." Sasuke said honestly.

"Then allow us to make it so you can join him in death." one of the males said.

"Good luck with that I'm more than capable of defeating your three without the dobe." Sasuke said firmly.

The male laughed and rushed Sasuke rearing back his fist ready to begin a taijutsu fight. Sasuke however wasn't planning to fight fairly as he rushed through the hand seals for his Gokakyu. As Sasuke hit the last seal he unleashed a stream of fire from his mouth.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out.

Dosu wasn't expecting Sasuke to use an elemental jutsu forcing him to stop and change his plan of attack. However while Dosu was distracted by the Gokakyu he didn't see Sasuke coming through the flames with a kunai in hand ready to kill. Dosu at the last minute jumped back out of the way when he noticed the fire was just a distraction.

Dosu and Sasuke exchanged blows testing one another's strength but neither one giving ground to the other. Dosu twisted in the air and used his gauntlet to send a sound wave at Sasuke which Sasuke was able to jump up and land on the trunk of a tree his feet clinging to the side with the use of his chakra, ok so maybe the tree climbing exercise was useful after all.

Sasuke ran through more hand seals but different than the ones he used before. "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!" Sasuke called out and launched a number of small fireballs from his mouth.

Dosu saw the many fireballs and suspected that Sasuke was adept at fire ninjutsu Dosu sent another sound wave at Sasuke ignoring the flames. However he noticed the fireballs began to chase him which caused him to curse and halt his attack. The fireballs all converged on Dosu cutting off any chance of escape and impacted Dosu and exploded. Dosu cried out in pain as the fireballs exploded only to find that the fireballs had hidden kunai in them which also exploded as they all had explosive tags on them.

Dosu landed on the ground with a thud while Sasuke was standing there breathing heavily, his eyes no longer black but now red each with a single tomoe, Sasuke had awakened his sharingan. Dosu stood up slowly, clearly weakened from the attack delivered to him by Sasuke.

"You are strong Sasuke, far stronger than we calculated. Please let us leave with our lives in exchange we will give you our scroll." Dosu said.

"Dosu what are you doing we can take him." Zaku yelled at his teammate.

"No Zaku we can not he is an Uchiha and a skilled tactician we were never meant to kill him." Dosu explained to his teammate.

Dosu then gave Sasuke their scroll which was the one Sakura and Sasuke needed to pass the exams but how were they going to get past the fact they were a man short.

"Well done Sasuke-kun." came a new voice, a voice that made Sasuke's blood run cold, Orochimaru.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked.

Seeing Orochimaru confirmed that Naruto was no longer alive.

"Where's Naruto?" Sakura asked, concern filled her voice.

"Your blonde teammate? He wasn't even a speed bump. I finished him quickly." Orochimaru said laughing.

Sakura's heart sank while she didn't like Naruto that much, he was still her teammate and there was a bond between them just not what one would call friendship.

Sasuke growled hearing that Naruto was in fact dead. While he didn't consider him and the dobe to be friends they were still rivals and comrades, cursing his own cowardice.

"Now Sasuke-kun I can give you power, the power to kill your brother and get your revenge on him. Power to never be afraid again. You have shown me that you would be able to use this gift." Orochimaru said.

"What power?" Sasuke asked.

Without warning Orochimaru's neck elongated and rushed Sasuke biting him on the neck causing the young Uchiha to cry out in pain.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Naruto woke up in a sewer and sat up in ankle deep water.

"Where am I? This doesn't look anything like Konoha nor the Forest of Death." Naruto spoke aloud using her real voice.

Naruto stood up and checked herself over everything seemed to be in order, wait where was her wound?"

"Damn it I died." Naruto cursed.

"**You are not dead not yet anyway."** came a deep voice from deeper in the tunnel Naruto was in.

"Who said that?" Naruto asked not sure where she was.

"**Follow the largest red pipe and you will find me."** the voice said.

Naruto looked around looking for the pipe once she found it she began to walk in the direction of the voice. After a short time of walking she came to a cage and behind the cage was a large red fox laying on his belly.

"**Hello Naruto."** the fox said.

"The Kyubi." Naruto breathed out in shock.

"**Yes I am the Kyubi no Yoko and you are the lucky human that was charged with holding me captive by your cursed Father."** the Kyubi explained.

"You're the second person to tell me that the Yondaime Hokage was my father. But I'm an orphan and both my parents died during your attack on Konoha." Naruto ranted.

"**It was your father the Yondaime who stopped my attack by sealing me inside his newborn Daughter, you."** the Kyubi further explained.

"Ok so my Father the Yondaime sealed you inside me to stop you from destroying Konoha so if that's the case why does everyone think you're dead." Naruto asked.

"**The Sandaime decided it was best to keep it a secret that you were the new Jinchuriki and told everyone I had been killed by the Yondaime, it was your mother's dying wish that you not be hated by your village so everyone was led to believe I was killed."** the Kyubi replied.

"Ok so why am I not dead from Orochimaru's sword cutting me open?" Naruto asked.

"**That's because of my healing you in combination with your Uzumaki Heritage. While I would love to let you die so I can be free, the seal your father used on you makes it so if you die I die with you and I am not ready to die just yet."** the Kyubi explained. "**Ah it seems your friends have arrived, good they can help get you to a safer place for you to heal."**

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Ino had stopped in the middle of a clearing, her team was on the way to the tower in the center of the Forest having secured both scrolls. However what she didn't count on was finding her best friend laying in the middle of a clearing in the middle of the Forest of Death.

"Ino why did you stop all of a sudden?" came the lazy voice of Shikamaru.

"It's Naruto." Ino said breathless.

Shikamaru looked and sure enough he saw Naruto laying on the ground in the middle of the clearing.

"What a drag. We need to look him over to see if he is still alive before we take any further actions with him." Shikamaru said.

"I'll do it. I have some medical training, not a lot but I can at least stabilize him." Ino volunteered.

Ino walked over to Naruto and rolled her on to her back to get a better look at the wound. While rolling Naruto over all three members of team ten gasped.

"Naruto is a girl!?" Choji asked.

"What a drag. I knew something was off about Naruto. I just never thought it would be this." Shikamaru replied to his friend.

Ino had a blush on her face while staring at Naruto's sizable bust. '_She's bigger than me, how did she keep them hidden bandages alone would have hurt like hell.'_ Ino thought to herself.

Ino shook her head to get the naughty thoughts out of her mind so she could focus on what she had to do which was check Naruto over for wounds. Ino noticed the long sword wound across Naruto's torso, a wound that should be lethal.

"That's a serious wound, how is she still alive?" Shikamaru asked.

"I don't know but we need to get her to the Tower where they are better equipped to treat her." Ino replied.

"What's that red chakra burning around the wound?" Choji asked.

"Whatever it is it seems to be healing her, but it will leave one nasty scar." Ino replied to her rotund friend.

"What a drag. Is she safe to be moved?" Shikamaru asked.

"I believe so. With that chakra healing her she shouldn't bleed out but we still have to be careful with her." Ino instructed. "Choji you're the strongest of us think you can carry Naruto?"

"Yea I can carry her," Chiji replied to Ino.

"Good, let's not waste anymore time then let's get Naruto to that tower." Ino ordered.

With that Chiji picked up Naruto bridal style and all three members of team ten took off toward the tower.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Team Ten made it to the tower without further complications and entered the tower. Opening the scrolls Ino and her team stood back not sure what to expect, then Iruka appeared.

"Hey guy so you made it through the second phase of the exams congratulations." Iruka said not yet noticing Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei we need your help we found Naruto alone and severely wounded she needs Medical attention." Ino said urgently.

"What Naruto but he's with team seven and they haven't arrived yet." Iruka said before noticing the blonde in Choji's arms. "Let me get a look at Naruto's wounds."

Choji put Naruto on the ground on her back so the wound was facing the roof.

"Where are Sasuke and Sakura?" Iruka asked.

"We don't know they were nowhere to be seen when we found Naruto." Ino replied.

"You three go on ahead, you have earned your rest. I'll tend to Naruto you three did a good job." Iruka instructed.

"I would like to stay with Naruto." Ino said.

"You can't. I am sending Naruto back to the main hospital in Konoha the tower isn't equipped for this kind of wound." Iruka told his former student.

"Ok Iruka-sensei." Ino said her shoulders slumping.

"And Ino once you are done with the exams you can visit Naruto i am sure Naruto would like to see a friend when she wakes up." Iruka said.

"Ok sensei." Ino said.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Sasuke and Sakura made it to the tower both breathing pretty heavily. They had just finished a fight with a team from Amegakure and since they didn't have Naruto with them it made the fight that much more exhausting. Entering the tower they saw a riddle Sakura was able to solve the riddle seeing that it was talking about the scrolls however she wasn't sure if their ruse would work. Sasuke had used a genjutsu to make it look like Naruke was with them before he opened the scrolls. When the smoke cleared Sasuke and Sakura saw Iruka their former sensei.

"Normally I would say congratulations but you seem to be missing a team member. Where is Naruto?" Iruka asked.

'I'm right here Dattebayo." the illusion spoke up.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this but it seems you would rather hide the truth." Iruka said, letting out a sigh. "Kai!"

In a flash of light the illusion was broken and only Sasuke and Sakura remained.

"How did you know it wasn't the real Naruto." Sasuke demanded.

"Because Team Ten brought Naruto in with them he had been severely wounded from what looked like a sword." Iruka explained. "Now tell me what happened."

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

Naruto woke up and her nose was instantly assaulted by the smell of disinfectant and bleach, Kami she hated hospitals. Naruto looked around and saw she was in the main hospital of Konoha and sighed, happy she survived her fight with Orochimaru but she most likely failed the chunin exams. Just then a knock came to the door of her room.

"Enter." Naruto called clearly.

The door opened and in walked the Hokage, her Jiji.

"I'm glad you're awake Naruto-chan. I was worried that you might not wake up. Orochimaru's sword left quite a scar on you. You are lucky that Team Ten found you had they not found you you may not have survived." Hiruzen said solemnly.

Naruto looked down. "I would have survived Jiji the Kyubi would have made sure of that."

"I see, so you know about the Kyubi then?" Hiruzen asked.

"I do and I also know about my father. How come you never told me I was the daughter of the Yondaime Hokage?" Naruto asked.

"Who told you about your father?" Hiruzen asked growing very serious.

"Orochimaru and the Kyubi both." Naruto replied.

"Naruto, your father had many enemies. I couldn't risk them finding out about you. I had planned to tell you when you were strong enough to defend yourself from them." Hiruzen explained.

"What about the kyubi how come you never told me I was the new jinchuriki of the thing that destroyed our village?" Naruto asked.

"You mother didn't want you to be hated by the village for being the new jinchuriki of the Kyubi and since there was neve an instance when you lost control and let the Kyubi out I figured the less people who knew about the kyubi the better." Hiruzen replied. "I didn't want you to know about the Kyubi because I didn't want you to hate yourself for being the one to hold the Kyubi."

"So am I still in the Chunin exams or did my team fail?" Naruto asked.

"Well you did wake up in time to still be in the exams but your team did fail the second phase of the exam by not having a full team when they arrived at the tower. So I am sorry to say this Naru-chan but you and your team are no longer in the exams." Hiruzen replied to his surrogate granddaughter. "But don't worry there are more exams in the future and the exams are not the only way to get promoted you could always get a field promotion."

Naruto let out a sigh and looked out the window of her room.

"I tried to get them to fight with me but instead they ran leaving me behind. They abandoned me. I knew Orochimaru was strong but I had faith in my team but it seems my faith was misplaced. They left me to die to save their own lives and left me to face an opponent I could never beat on my own. You know I can never trust them. After this they have proven they will never respect me or see me as their equal." Naruto explained.

"I know Naruto after the exams are over I will try and rework the teams. But i don't know how i will do that just yet." Hiruzen said, looking to the young blonde.


End file.
